Fostering Pet-People Harmony: Shanghai's Sanctuary for Stray Cats

Having covered more than 4 kilometers as a lone walker in suburban Shanghai on a chilly afternoon about two weeks ago, I was surprised to find a rare companion in a cat that sashayed from a small forest to greet me, meowing all the way.

I came across the unexpected "furry friend" when I was about 100 meters away from my destination – the famed Cat Island in a newly opened park in Baoshan District.

The chubby cat came straight to me, rubbed its sides against my legs, and rolled over on its back. Finally it stood near my feet, glancing up at me now and then.

I crouched down to caress it, and it scampered away with a light step. Apparently it accepted my touch but was cautious about prolonged contact.

However, it didn't run far away, but paced itself only a few steps ahead of me and kept looking back as if to lead the way toward the Cat Island. When we reached the island, it silently bade me farewell by slowly disappearing into a riverside grove.

It was a cool Tuesday afternoon, and I found the Cat Island closed – much to my dismay. I then dialed a mobile phone number printed on an outside signpost and was told by a member of the management team that the Cat Island is open only on weekends.

The hospitable young man who answered my call also told me that currently there were about 400 feral cats on the island – some in a nearly 2,000-square-meter courtyard home adapted from a former kindergarten and others on a 2-hectare, tree-covered islet circled by a creek – and all had been vaccinated and neutered. He added that some cats would climb out of the courtyard home or swim across the creek to play in nearby places, where some unsterilized stray cats also roamed.

"You can easily tell neutered cats from unneutered ones," a woman working for a charity fund which supports the Cat Island told me on March 8, when I revisited the island. "The neutered cats have an ear that's squared off. "

"Didn't they feel pain when a small portion of one of their ears was cut?" I asked.

"No, ear-tipping is a universally recognized humane procedure that's done while the cat is under anesthesia for neuter surgery," she explained. "There are relatively fewer blood vessels or nerves in a cat's ears, so it's safe to cut a small portion of either the left or the right ear."

Upon hearing her explanation, I looked at the pictures I had taken of the roly-poly cat I met on Tuesday. It's an ear-tipped cat indeed. So it's most likely a resident of the Cat Island, since it was sociable and appeared to be well-fed. In contrast, unsocial and underfed feral cats appear to be weak and tend to avoid human contact.

Cats' wonderland

The Cat Island is an example for scientific and humane management of feral cats. It espouses the widely recognized TNR (trap-neuter-return) method to curb the otherwise rampant growth of feral cat colonies. Under this approach, feral cats are trapped, neutered and vaccinated, and then returned to communities. Qualified cat lovers – those who have both the means and the will to care for cats – may also adopt them for free.

The Cat Island used to be located in a faraway place in the Pudong New Area. It moved to Baoshan District early last year and became part of a gigantic pet-friendly park under construction. The 86.83-hectare Shengzhai Park formally opened to public earlier this year, with newly built car parking space near the Cat Island.

Two years ago, The Washington Post published an article stating: "The happiest place on Earth for cats might just be here, on Cat Island, a feline playground just a few miles from Shanghai Disneyland. While humans whoop and whirl at the latter, the 400-plus kitties who call Cat Island home rest in the shade of specially constructed grass-covered play tunnels or loll about in pagodas. They cross a wooden bridge to stalk through pear orchards, the intrepid among them even venturing into the horse stable."

The report noted, however, that the old Cat Island was a remote and grassy site outside Shanghai (proper).

Now, the site in Baoshan is much closer to downtown areas. That's why it's also called the Urban Cat Island now.

What impressed me most were many colorful cat houses built in the style of legendary hobbit homes on the creek-circled islet, and the relaxed manner of most neutered cats who rambled freely around their homes or by the creek. In the spacious courtyard home, some even rested on sofas or beds in wind-proof tents.

On March 3, I walked around the islet to see if I could cross over to it where the creek might become narrower, but my attempt failed. What comforted me, though, was that two kittens on the islet followed me halfway, responding to my "mimi" greetings with constant meowing – except that we were separated by the several-meter-wide creek. "Mimi" (咪咪) is the sound of two Chinese characters pet lovers in China often use to greet cats or call for their attention.

When I just arrived at the Cat Island on that Tuesday, led by the plump cat, I found I was the only visitor. But when I finished walking around the creek-circled islet and returned to the closed courtyard home across the creek, I saw a young man and a young lady feeding cats outside a painted wall of the courtyard home.

Assuming they were Chinese, I went up and struck up a conversation in Chinese. It turned out that they were American tourists: The young man's parents are from China, while the young lady's parents are from South Korea. Then we switched to English.

"How did you know about the Cat Island?" I asked them.

"Instagram," replied the young lady. "Some people posted lovely pictures of the Cat Island on Instagram."

"Aren't you worried that the cats might bite you?" I asked them again.

"They're so nice!" replied the young lady with a radiant smile. She was squatting by the painted wall, cuddling a cat sitting calmly on her legs.

Later I learned that the young couple stayed in a hotel in downtown Huangpu District, near the Huangpu River. They took a taxi to the Cat Island. The young man said he's allergic to cats, so he made sure to take allergy medication in Shanghai before coming to feed the cats.

Isn't it amazing that the young couple had come from afar to "befriend" the cats? Although they were not able to go inside the courtyard home that day, they contented themselves with petting those sociable feral cats that had climbed out to play.

"Many foreign tourists have come to visit the Cat Island," a septuagenarian woman told me, "from the United States, Canada, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, New Zealand ... You name it."

I was taking pictures of some sociable cats eating outside the closed gate of the courtyard home when she walked out of a side room. She told me she had seen a young man entering and leaving the courtyard home, so she decided to come out and see what had happened.

It so happened that I had just talked with the young man after I saw him coming out of the gate, a pet carrier bag in hand. As I drew nearer to him, I saw a yellow cat looking out with curiosity. I asked him how he had entered the closed courtyard home, and he said he had made an appointment to adopt a cat.

"I had gone through very strict procedures before I was finally allowed to adopt a cat I loved," the young man explained. "Among other things, I had shown the island management team the videos of my living environment."

I told the elderly woman what I had heard from the young man, and she gave me an understanding smile.

She said her son was responsible for the Cat Island. "We've been doing this (project) for many years, all the way from Pudong to Baoshan. Different people may have different attitudes toward cats – some like them, others don't. We just do our bit to help out. And we've attracted many visitors, including those from different countries."

She was familiar with the character of almost every cat on the Cat Island, be they inside or outside the courtyard home or the creek-circled islet. Pointing to several cats eating outside the closed gate of the courtyard home, she said most were docile, except the yellow one that had yet to be taught to act more sociably.

At the end of our long conversation, she invited me to visit the Cat Island again on the coming weekend.

When I went into the courtyard home on the sunny afternoon of March 8, I found it was packed with visitors – young and old, Chinese and foreign – who were feeding the cats or playing with them.

A 22-year-old sports teacher from Poland told me he was traveling in Shanghai with his girlfriend and aunt.

"We learned about the Cat Island on TikTok (Douyin in Chinese)," he said, adding that he and his girlfriend both like small animals – his girlfriend, who works in a pharmacy, likes dogs and cats, while he likes tortoises.

"My father used to work in Shanghai. He said Shanghai is beautiful and suggested we visit the city if we had time," said the young man, who teaches basketball, handball and football in many kindergartens in Poland.

All hands to the pump

The Cat Island, which is supported by some charity funds and many volunteers, is just one example of how the city helps feral cats live a better life. Shanghai has launched two rounds of three-year campaigns since 2020 to promote responsible pet ownership, focusing on fostering harmony between pets and communities.

"I've helped more than 300 feral cats find ideal adopters since 2021," sister Lily told me during an adoption event held in Juyuan Orchard in Jiading District on March 7. She is a retired fashion designer and one of the many individual pet lovers registered with Shanghai Adoption Day, a non-profit platform that helps pets find responsible owners.

"This kitten is called Chuxi, and that one is called Fenghuang," the 58-year-old told me. They were two of the eight cats she brought to Juyuan Ochard that day for adoption. They were all less than one year old. She gave each of them a romantic name.

Both Chuxi and Fenghuang were feral cats found in her neighborhood. In Chinese, chuxi means the eve of the Chinese New Year. Sister Lily carried Chuxi home when she spotted it on that day last month. Fenghuang, which means phoenix, was one of a litter of three kittens. Its two brothers – Zhuque (a legendary vermilion bird) and Pixiu (a legendary mythical guardian of wealth) – had found ideal owners at another Shanghai Adoption Day event held at the end of February.

Because it was windy on March 7, only a few potential adopters came to Juyuan Orchard. Sister Lily said she would wait for another chance to find ideal adopters.

Sister Lily said she didn't like cats at first, but her attitude changed after her daughter bought a cat about 10 years ago. From then, she said, she began to save feral cats from parks and her neighborhood. She was so meticulous and devoted that she even discovered and saved a kitten born in a sewer in the neighborhood.

"Shortly after it came into this world, its mother was gone, nowhere to be found," said sister Lily. "So I took it home. I call it Bengbeng – Chinese for jumping – because it loves to jump around."

If you check the Shanghai Adoption Day platform, you will find many more people like sister Lily who have rescued feral cats – from the scene of a car accident, the delivery station on a university campus, a construction site...

Since its establishment in 2017, Shanghai Adoption Day has held more than 400 charity events and helped rehome more than 10,000 furries.

And if you visit Longhua Temple in Xuhui District, you will see many cats are well taken care of.

It's hard to precisely calculate the total number of feral cats in Shanghai. Media reports show that estimates vary from 300,000 to 1 million. Most reports agree, however, that an overgrowth of cat colonies, especially after owners abandon them, is a major challenge.

Rehoming these feral cats is no easy task. It requires all hands to the pump. But, to begin with, every one of us should endeavor to create an environment in which our "furry friends" no longer fear us.

The Cat Island and many people like sister Lily may not help all or most of the feral cats find ideal homes overnight, but what they do serves to "connect the dots" by engaging more and more people in caring for our "furry friends."

Zhao Wanping, a senior agricultural scientist from Anhui Province and a delegate to the National People's Congress, said recently that it's comforting to note that people are increasingly intolerant of animal abuse. In particular, he noted, many families now treat pets as their companions, or rather, their family members. Zhao expressed the hope that a law on companion animal protection would be drafted as soon as possible, and that animal abuse should be included in the Criminal Law.

He also said: "To care about animals is to care about ourselves."

Zhao made the remarks during the annual national Two Sessions held in Beijing earlier this month.

Think of the joy our "furry friends" bring to our lives. And it's not just such joy that justifies our kind treatment of them. By treating them well, we gradually enlarge our mind and find better angles in ourselves.

Love is not narrow; it transcends species.

On March 8, I was deeply moved by two young people I saw in the courtyard home of the Cat Island. They each held a cat in their arms, and the cats seemed to have quietly drifted into dreams.

I immediately snapped a picture of the scene. After returning home, I looked at the photo again and again – it was the most satisfying one I took that day. Later, I took out my xiao (a Chinese vertical flute) and played a short segment of a song dedicated to mothers as a soundtrack for this image.

I wondered if these sheltered stray cats might see the two young people as their parents.