The Japanese anime "The Cat Returns" tells the story of a little girl who saves a cat from under a car wheel, and the cat then begins to repay her kindness. Surprisingly, a similar story has occurred in real life: On March 14th, Ms. Zheng, a resident of Chongqing, contacted a reporter from Upstream News to recount the story of an injured silver shaded cat repaying her debt of gratitude.
Over a period of three months, this pet cat, nicknamed "Big Face Cat" by its owner, helped its rescuer, Ms. Zheng, catch 13 mice despite its disability, solving Ms. Zheng's rat infestation problem. Ms. Zheng said frankly, "This is a cat that repays a debt of gratitude; I will take care of it until the end."
Why did it take so long to tell this story? Ms. Zheng explained that she had no choice: "Because I used to run a restaurant, and they said that having rats in the shop would affect business. Now that I'm not running the shop anymore, I just wanted to thank 'Big Face Cat' for its tremendous help!"
Ms. Zheng's connection with the "Big Face Cat" began at 1 a.m. on October 14 last year. Recalling the incident, Ms. Zheng still feels lingering fear: "I got off work late that day, it was already past midnight. I saw a message in the community's owners' group saying that a cat had fallen and was injured on the platform of the fourth floor of Building 2. It had been crying all day, and no one had taken care of it. I saw the pictures taken by kind-hearted people. The cat had fallen badly and looked like a 'blood cat' covered in blood."
As a Pomeranian owner herself, Ms. Zheng was heartbroken after seeing the message. She immediately went to the fourth-floor platform of Building 2 in her apartment complex and carried the blood-soaked cat home. Ms. Zheng recalled the scene of cleaning the cat: "When I brought the cat into the bathroom, it kept howling. I rinsed away the blood and found it had multiple injuries—its chin was broken, the jawbone was visible, and its mouth was now an underbite; its front paws and hind legs were broken in several places, and it couldn't stand up at all..."
After cleaning the cat, Ms. Zheng discovered it was an expensive silver shaded cat. Worried that the cat's owner might covet it, she posted a photo of the cat in the community's residents' group chat. At the same time, some kind-hearted people printed out the cat's photo and posted it near the elevator in Building 2.
However, several days passed, and no cat owner came to claim it, so Ms. Zheng decided to keep the cat herself. When asked why she took in the injured cat, Ms. Zheng said, "I didn't think too much at the time. I just felt sorry for the cat. Its owner didn't want it anymore, and if I didn't take care of it, it might die. I thought I was doing a good deed, after all, it's a life."
In order to save the cat's life, Ms. Zheng first took it to a pet hospital to treat its wounds; then she took out a bamboo basket, lined it with cotton cloth, and bought cat food to put next to the basket so that the cat could eat easily and rest quietly.
After nearly half a month of rest, the cat finally passed the critical period at the end of October last year: its broken jaw gradually healed, and its fractured left front paw also gradually recovered. Only its right hind leg was left disabled due to the severity of the injury, making it a disabled cat that walks with a limp. Since she didn't know the cat's name, Ms. Zheng simply gave it a simple and easy-to-remember name based on its appearance (the cat has a large face): "Big-faced Cat".
Because the "big-faced cat" had a strong odor, Ms. Zheng did not take it home, but kept it in the shop. Every night before closing the shop, she would put out cat food and water before leaving.
Ms. Zheng, who runs a chicken noodle soup business, often buys extra chicken breasts when she goes out to buy chicken soup noodles in order to help "Big Face Cat" recover. She boils the chicken breasts in plain water and feeds them to the cat, which makes the cat, who has been saved, feel even more affection for her.
Speaking of the "Big Face Cat's" enthusiasm, Ms. Zheng exclaimed that she was a little overwhelmed: "Every morning when I open the shop, the 'Big Face Cat' rushes to my side and rubs against me with its body and head, begging to be petted. When it sees me resting and sitting down, it will also come and act cute, asking me to give it the mineral water I'm drinking. Sometimes when I'm doing something, it likes to follow me, and I've almost stepped on it a few times."
Starting in mid-November last year, Ms. Zheng noticed that her cat, "Big Face Cat," which had basically recovered, had a strange habit: in addition to eating normally, resting in its bed, and using the litter box, it would often stand under the kitchen sink and stare blankly for hours at a time.
There was no food in the pool, so what was "Big Face Cat" up to? The answer was finally revealed in early December last year - Ms. Zheng told reporters: "On December 4th last year, I opened the store and found bloodstains on the ground, which startled me. I thought something had happened to 'Big Face Cat,' but when I went into the kitchen, I found a dead rat. Obviously, this was 'Big Face Cat's' handiwork."
Ms. Zheng was astonished to learn that her pet cat could catch mice. "I really never expected a silver shaded cat to catch mice! My friend's mixed-breed cat used to get so scared when it saw a mouse that its fur stood on end. This 'big-faced cat' really came in handy!" Ms. Zheng explained that the mice had sneaked in through a small hole in the kitchen drain, and she had tried many methods, including rat poison and sticky traps, but none of them worked. "I never imagined that this limping 'big-faced cat' would actually do such a great job!"
To reward "Big Face Cat" for catching a mouse, Ms. Zheng bought it a cat treat. Unexpectedly, this action completely unlocked "Big Face Cat's" mouse-catching skills.
"It catches mice all night long, and then comes in the morning with the dead mice to collect its cat treat. Several times I've seen it with bruises on its nose," Ms. Zheng said with a smile, recounting the amusing story of "Big Face Cat" catching mice in exchange for cat treats. "At first, 'Big Face Cat' caught four mice a week, and once it caught mice for three consecutive days. But later the mice became fewer and fewer, and 'Big Face Cat' could only catch them occasionally. Around February of this year, the mice in the kitchen disappeared. 'Big Face Cat' had caught a total of 13 mice in total."
Because of the downturn in the catering industry during the pandemic, Ms. Zheng closed her noodle shop, which she had run for a year, on March 5th this year. At that time, the fate of "Big Face Cat" became a problem. Some neighbors and customers wanted to adopt "Big Face Cat", and some customers were even willing to pay 500 yuan. However, Ms. Zheng refused them all: "Meeting is a kind of fate. I will take it home and raise it."
Why did Ms. Zheng, who was originally allergic to cats, ultimately choose to bring "Big Face Cat" home? She said that besides catching mice to repay her kindness, the cat had done something unforgettable for her: "This cat is truly my guardian angel. Once, the electrical wire in the noodle cooker outside the shop short-circuited. I was busy in the kitchen and didn't know, but Big Face Cat smelled the odor and kept meowing at the door. When I heard the noise and went out, I found that a section of wire wrapped in insulating tape was smoking and emitting a burnt smell. Luckily, I discovered it early, otherwise it would have blew the fuse or caused a fire!"
Currently, the "Big-faced Cat" living in Ms. Zheng's home is enjoying its "retirement." Videos sent by Ms. Zheng show that the "Big-faced Cat" has found a new home on the balcony and no longer has to stay up all night fighting mice. Ms. Zheng said, "We will continue to live happily together and take care of it until the day it grows old."
