(CN) Cat City, Cat Woman, Cat Crisis

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Cat City, Cat Woman, Cat Crisis

Shanghai Daily

2007-7-11

 

Cat lady Duo Zirong loves cats and hates to see them

suffer. She has now rescued around 1,200 furry felines

- more than 850 destined for restaurants last weekend

- and faces an animal health and housing crisis. Can

you help? asks Tan Weiyun Duo

 

Zirong cradles Bobo lovingly, sadly. Just minutes ago,

Bobo, one of her 1,200 adopted cats died peacefully as

she petted him in the corner of a room filled with at

least 100 other cats.

 

" At least he died peacefully without any pain or

fear, " she says quietly as she puts Bobo into a

cardboard container. " I need to find a good place to

bury him. "

 

Four or five years ago, Duo would cry for hours in

front of a cat's gravestone, she would be depressed

for days. But now there's no time for mourning. She is

in crisis mode. " I have to be strong, " says the former

doctor of traditional Chinese medicine with a bitter

smile.

 

Duo, 39, wasn't expecting that one day, she and her

hundreds of cats would become one of the city's most

controversial issues. Over 12 years she has rescued

over 1,500 - 860 last Friday night alone when she

rescued them from a truck en route to restaurants in

Guangdong Province.

 

" People hate my cats, and they kill them, cut off

their tails, gouge out their eyes, and drop the bodies

at my door, " she says. " Sometimes I feel like I'm

going crazy, but I would hate to part with my cats. "

 

What do city officials do in her commercial area?

Nothing yet. China has no animal protection laws,

according to the Shanghai Animal Protection

Association.

 

To cat lovers Duo is a saint, to neighbors she is a

villain and a freak. They have killed and poisoned her

cats, threatened her and extorted money, made life

hell and forced her to move from place to place with

her cats.

 

Over the weekend the cat population in a two-story

rented house in the Minhang District rose to around

1,200 when she rescued the 860 cats from a lorry. A

friend bought them for 5,000 yuan (US$660) from a

crooked cat scalper who skulked away when she called

police and volunteers collected them for Duo.

 

Yesterday afternoon, the floating cat population

dropped to around 1,000 but she was urgently seeking

mass adoptions, veterinary care, donations, volunteers

and other assistance.

 

Anyone who is brave enough to venture into Duo's house

would call it a nightmare. In addition to healthy cats

that come and go, there are sick, lame, blind and

paralyzed cats and kittens, some dying and moaning all

day. Some females are in heat. Animals are crammed

into the dim, dilapidated two-story house, with wire

mesh on the windows. Sheets are laundered daily but

get filthy; the stench is unbearable.

 

It's more like a slum, a refugee camp for Duo and her

cats.

 

Duo's cat story began in 1996 when she and her

economist husband Liu Junluo arrived in Shanghai from

Beijing. Duo, of the Dawoer ethnic group from Inner

Mongolia, took in her first street cat, a white cat

that was being tormented. It was almost paralyzed.

 

" I remember the day. He was hanged on a tree, beaten

by wicked children. His eyeballs fell out and blood

was everywhere, " Duo recalls, angrily waving her

hands. " I scared away the children and saved the cat,

my first cat. I untied him off the tree and brought

him home, I had to shoulder the responsibility. "

 

Then it was like a rolling snowball, growing bigger

and bigger. From 20 to 50 to 100 and to 500 or so

within a decade, Duo and her husband feel as though

they're driving a high-speed car, it's too hard to

stop.

 

" I just can't tolerate other people or animals living

in misery, " Duo says. " That makes me heart-broken. "

 

Since then, Duo has been a vagabond, forced to move

from place to place with her expanding,

ever-reproducing cat population.

 

From a chic apartment in Xujiahui, to an old, deserted

factory in suburban Xidu Town in Fengxian District,

and now to a half-hidden road in Minhang District, Duo

has been drifting for 12 years.

 

She quit her job as a TCM doctor and dedicated all of

her money, time and energy to adopting and taking care

of the cats. Cat food alone costs more than 30,000

yuan per month, rent is 6,800 yuan and then there are

fees for veterinarians, medicine, vaccines,

sterilization, supplies and many other things.

 

Shortly after arriving in the city, Duo sold her nice

house and spent all her and her husband's money, two

million yuan, on the cats.

 

Each day, Duo is up to her neck cleaning, washing

sheets, feeding milk to sick kittens, spraying room

deodorizer, bathing the cats and saying sorry to

neighbors for the troubles her cats cause. She tucks

blankets around the cats during cold winters' nights

and chases after mosquitoes in summer.

 

Her cats can sleep until their natural wake up time

and eat balanced, healthy pet food while Duo has only

three to four hours sleep each night and instant

noodles for her daily diet.

 

" You can't imagine how hard it was, " she says sighing

as she holds a kitten in her arms, which are covered

with old and fresh scratches. " It's not merely the

financial problems or the cleaning. "

 

Though her house gets little sunshine, it's blocked by

shops in front, Duo is quite satisfied.

 

" Oops! Boys and girls, get in the house now! " She

calls her cats like children, her naughty children and

rushes out to catch them, one after the other.

 

In the distance, a city management inspector in

uniform is patrolling. " Don't let them out. Don't get

yourself in trouble, " he shouts when slowly walking

down the alley. Seeing no cats outside, the inspector

turns away.

 

" He's most polite, " Duo says as she opens the door a

little wider to let the kittens out again for a good

sunbath.

 

Every day, she plays this hide-and-seek game three to

four times; it's routines.

 

But she has some ugly memories.

 

In July 2004, not long after Duo and her cats moved to

Datong Village, Fengxian District, Huo Huiying, Duo's

mother-in-law, a retired senior engineer, who tried to

protect the cats, was beaten blind - and she is still

blind today. It happened in a fight with her neighbors

who demanded money from Duo if she wanted to keep her

cats alive.

 

" At first they wanted us to pay them 800 yuan per

month, then 1,000 yuan, then 1,200 yuan, and finally

they wanted 1,500. That was absolutely impossible! "

She is still angry.

 

For Duo and her family, those three years were a time

of terror, extortion, death threats, threats to poison

and kill the cats, many fights and sieges by neighbors

and urban management inspectors. There were power and

water cut-offs.

 

Each time a siege ended, there were always cats left

in its wake. During the tree years, more than 30 cats

were buried beside the house; some of them were

poisoned; some disappeared but later were found

floating in the river; some were battered and their

legs broken; some were blinded.

 

In those days, Duo was distraught and squeamish. She

always awoke in fear in the middle of night, then

stood silently in the darkness at the steel-mesh door

for hours, afraid that someone would steal or kill her

cats.

 

" All I want is peaceful coexistence of man and cat, "

Duo says. " But I know it's not right to adopt cats

non-stop. "

 

On some days she receives 40 to 50 cats from all parts

of the country, including Shandong, Gansu, and Qinghai

provinces. " There will come a day I can no longer

adopt and afford to keep cats, " she says.

 

Duo hopes more people can adopt her cats. " I don't

care how long someone can raise a cat, one year, one

month or even one week. If he wants to adopt the cat

forever, I thank him greatly; if he is tired of taking

care of a cat but can return the same healthy cat to

me, I also thank him. "

 

 

Contact Duo Zirong at 138-1663-4670

 

Rooms 108 and 110, No. 2, Lane 3825 Dushi Road

 

 

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=322826 & type=Feature

 

 

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