New York, April 6 (IANS): Facebook has helped many a long lost friend re-unite. Now it has helped a dog -- that waited for five years to get adopted -- find a loving home.

The dog was adopted after a tear-jerking picture of him went viral on the social media site. Chester, a six-year-old pit bull, was found as a stray and had been living in shelters for the past five years, express.co.uk reported.

Then, Gabby Stroup, the manager of the North Fork Animal Welfare League shelter in Southold, New York State, took a picture of the canine and posted it on Facebook page.

Staring with his sad puppy dog eyes into the camera, Chester sat with a paw draped over a sign which read: "Why doesn't anybody want me?

"I've been waiting five years. Everyone at the shelter tells me what a good boy I am. So why has no one adopted me?

"I promised to be good and love my new family. Please maybe you are my new family. I sit and wait for you to come."

After just a few hours, Chester's photo had been shared over 6,000 times. Stroup was also flooded with inquiries, including some 300 emails and countless phone calls from animal lovers who wanted to adopt Chester.

"There were more phone calls than I can count. The phone just never stopped. People called from Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Michigan, Oregon, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Nova Scotia, Australia and more -- people tearing up as they called," she was quoted as saying.

"We saw him and we felt connected. It was meant to be," Chester's new owner Adi Dor was quoted as saying.