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Unwanted Cats and Grandma Ding
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2006-02-28 16:34:25
Chinastic
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Also on Chinastic: Treat Your Pets Kindly
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Seventy-eight-year-old Grandma Ding lives alone in a tranquil hutong (traditional alley) home near Beijing's Houhai Lake. Her small house is protected by two sets of doors -- an outer red iron one and an inner wooden one. Most of the time she keeps both doors closed, and you'll soon understand why. No sounds leak through until you knock on the door, and almost instantly a dog begins to bark.
The barking continues for quite some time before Grandma Ding finally comes to open the doors. She lets you in, then quickly shuts both doors. Inside there is an odd smell in the air. Is it the smell of fish? Or maybe it's the odor of the numerous cats strolling casually around the room? The white cute dog that had been barking hysterically just now, becomes completely silent while he and Grandma Ding lead you into the bedroom.
Inside the room, the odor becomes even more pronounced. You see another huge number of cats lying on the floor, crouching on the table, and occupying the bed. Grandma Ding sits down on the edge of the bed. With the dog settled at her feet and a yellow fat cat climbing into her arms, she waits for you to introduce yourself.
This is a common scenario at Grandma Ding's. Strangers keep coming to visit. They are either media reporters, volunteers, or people dropping off unwanted pets, who unfortunately, Grandma Ding really loathes. She tells us how most of the cats here were abandoned by their owners.
While other 78-year-olds pass their time practicing Tai Chi or playing board games, Grandma Ding spends her days like this: she gets up at 6am, makes breakfast for 160 cats and one dog, opens the doors to check if there are any abandoned cats waiting outside, makes sure all the animals are kept in the house to avoid getting hit by strangers, does a bit of housecleaning, takes sick cats to the hospital, arranges for newcomer cats to be spayed or neutered, brings them home, plays with the healthy ones, cooks fish and other tasty animal food, answers phone calls of "please take my cat, I can't keep it anymore, my family hates it" and "my cat has some disease, I don't know what to do, maybe you could take it", and many other tasks as part of her busy day taking care of cats that lasts until 2 o'clock in the morning.
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Director: Liu Chi 
