Stray cats are an integral part of the city, roaming parks and residential areas. Statistics show that the number of stray cats in Guangzhou has exceeded 300,000.
There is also a large number of stray cat rescuers in the city. They come from all walks of life, including white-collar workers, students, and retired workers. This group started by loving stray cats and then gradually shifted from feeding them "for their own enjoyment" to participating in rescue efforts. Controversies have also arisen regarding rescue philosophies, such as "whether or not to spay/neuter cats."
When Tan Xin's phone screen is lit up, the wallpaper is a stray cat lying on the roof of a car, leisurely basking in the sun—this is a stray cat she met named "Quan Quan".
Tan Xin is a third-year graduate student at Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering. Her "connection" with Quan Quan began one afternoon during her first year of graduate school. After working in the lab all day, she was strolling around campus in the evening when Quan Quan sat by the roadside watching her. With its round head, docile movements, and affectionate nature, coupled with a clear "meow," Quan Quan instantly soothed Tan Xin's fatigue. After interacting with it for nearly half an hour, she reluctantly left. The next day, Tan Xin even brought cat treats and dried fish to visit Quan Quan again.
Tan Xin's major is landscape architecture. For her, "petting cats" is like the green landscape in a design drawing, allowing her to escape her worries and bringing her a therapeutic effect like a mental massage. "Maybe I'm not suited for scientific research. I feel a lot of mental pressure and wonder what the point of pursuing a master's degree is... But when I see cats and pet them a couple of times, I feel a little relaxed."
After that, feeding cats became a habit for Tan Xin. Every day after dinner, she would take cat food with her and walk around the campus, feeding stray cats whenever she saw them, and petting their heads while they were focused on eating. In the acknowledgments of her graduate thesis, she specifically thanked the cats on campus. But at the time, she didn't have the concept of rescuing stray cats; feeding them was purely "for my own happiness, and I'd let them be afterward."
The idea to rescue stray cats came from the fall of a stray cat on campus. This stray cat, named "Lao Lao," roamed around seven or eight offices in the Zhongkai Science Building. Three months ago, on a rainy day, Lao Lao fell from the fourth floor, bleeding from its nose.
She rushed Lao Lao to a pet hospital near the school, where a CT scan revealed a fractured skull. Seeing the cat, who usually begged for treats with its adorable antics, lying unconscious on the operating table made Tan Xin realize, "Caring for stray cats requires more than just love." After Lao Lao recovered, she joined a stray cat rescue association composed of students from Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering. In the association, she met Lu Qing, a fellow graduate student.
Lu Qing is an active member of the rescue association. As a veterinary graduate student, he knows how to diagnose feline illnesses and can perform procedures such as draining abdominal fluid and administering antibiotics. He has spayed/neutered and vaccinated more than thirty stray cats on campus.
Like Tan Xin, Lu Qing first rescued a stray cat because he couldn't bear to see it suffer. A few years ago, while renting an apartment in a residential complex, he saw four or five children carrying a one-month-old tortoiseshell kitten running around. "That cat was on the verge of death. If I didn't intervene, it would definitely be dead the next day."
Having studied aquaculture for his undergraduate degree and veterinary medicine for his graduate degree, Lu Qing has witnessed too many animals facing life and death. He knows that there are too many stray cats in danger of death, and he cannot save them all by himself, but he still chooses to do his best. "Whether I save that stray cat or not will not have a big impact on the overall natural ecosystem, but it is of great significance to the individual. If I don't save it today, it will never see this world again."
However, rescuing a stray cat is not easy. Rescue requires time and money, and sometimes even with significant investment, it's impossible to save a stray cat's life.
Lu Qing is currently rescuing a stray cat suffering from stomatitis and feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). The cat lies in its cage, its abdomen swollen, unresponsive to the fragrant cat treats. Lu Qing spent over an hour draining fluid from its abdomen using his own tools, but there was no improvement. After taking it to a veterinary hospital, the doctor told him that the examination and treatment would cost nearly 5,000 yuan, but there was still a risk of treatment failure.
Lu Qing didn't give up. "Rescuing stray cats means being prepared that even if you spend money, there's no guarantee of success. I will do my best to save them no matter what." Lu Qing spends nearly 20,000 yuan a year on stray cat treatment, accounting for 20% of his total income; last year, he spent more than 4,000 yuan of his own money but still couldn't save a single stray cat. To rescue more stray cats, he plans to open a pet hospital with his roommate after graduation.
But Lu Qing also understands that there's no way to rescue all stray cats. How can we fundamentally reduce the suffering of stray cats and improve their quality of life? In his view, spaying/neutering stray cats to prevent uncontrolled breeding is an important method. Stray cats have a terrifying reproductive capacity: a litter every 3 to 4 months, with at least three or four kittens per litter. The brutal competition for survival under uncontrolled breeding, along with hunger and infectious diseases caused by overcrowding, are enough to threaten the lives of cats. No single organization can accommodate all stray cats; if they cannot be adopted, spaying/neutering becomes a reasonable option.
Currently, major stray cat rescue organizations use a method called TNR, which stands for Trap, Neuter, and Release. Neutered cats in the community are tagged with ear tags. This is a long-term process, and considering cats' high reproductive rate, missing even one kitten is a significant problem—an adult female cat can give birth to at least ten kittens a year.
For rescuers lacking professional cat-catching skills, spaying/neutering often starts with stray cats they are familiar with. Li Zhen is a stray cat rescuer who works as an artist. Her method for catching stray cats in her neighborhood is to feed them for a few months to familiarize them with the environment, and then place a trap in the area where they frequent, using a cat treat to lure them into the trap. She only dares to catch stray cats directly when they are young and weak. "The only stray cat I've ever caught by hand was just over a month old, covered in mud, and meowing from hunger; otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to catch it."
More experienced rescuers use nets, a faster method of catching cats, but this can easily trigger a stress response in the cat. Lu Qing once worked with a classmate to catch a male cat. At 11 PM, while the cat was eating its food, Lu Qing seized the opportunity to scoop it up from behind with a net and put it in a carrier. However, the cat struggled and jumped out, biting Lu Qing's left hand. His palm quickly swelled due to a bacterial infection, requiring a week of antibiotics to recover.
"So rescuing stray cats requires skill, energy, and the possibility of injury. It's not as easy as everyone thinks." Lu Qing examined his left hand. Although the wound had healed, it still left a slight scar.
