In an old street 100 metres away from Hunan Chang Sha, there is a special pet, the “Café Meow”. Sixty square metres of shop, which is very poorly decorated, has no decent sign, and many cats and dogs in the store are physically disabled... Such a small shop, which does not seem to be selling, attracts young people to come and play cards.
On 5 November, a journalist from the Samurai Metropolitan newspaper contacted Li Jing, the owner of the pet shop.
He owns a shop with 38 cats and dogs at 40.
Li Jing is 40 years old and customers like to call him Lee. As soon as journalists entered the store, they were surrounded by a dozen different kinds of dogs. Three legs of gross gold hair and Hastych, paralysing pomegranates, pagodas without eyes, stray cats without tails and legs... Physical disabilities did not affect their enthusiasm, and journalists felt a little push under the warm welcome and strong look of a group of cats and dogs.
There are currently 23 dogs and 15 cats in the store, eight of them with obvious disabilities, and Li told reporters: “They are basically street injuries and even abandoned for abuse. In part, the original owner was unable, for various reasons, to continue taking care of the cat and the dog and sent them for adoption”.
To facilitate care, Li certified every stray cat and dog, sterilized and named. When Old Lee approaches, the little ones will kindly ask for a “poster” and a “said” to his instructions. Which doggy doesn't take care of the naughty, and when Lee calls out his name, he listens. Li also knows every dog's temperament and physical condition.
Every cat and dog has a special story.
"Eggs", French bulldog, first old man to join the Li family. When the former master had the baby, his family opposed it and gave it to Lee. As the only dog in the store with a gold chain, he's got a very strong face, but he's very sticky, and he always likes to give arms to customers who come forward to spoil them.
That is, beginning with the adoption of the “polls”, Li opened the way to adoption, and as the number of cats and dogs in need of care increased, he developed the idea of opening a store, “If we get in, we can help more homeless children.”
The Bago dog, Yuanbao, who sits on the bench, has a particularly small nerve, because without his eyes, he likes to be alone, he doesn't like a part of the dog in the store, and every time the customer caressssss, he's afraid and he's attached to Li. Li told the reporter, "It's a delivery boy who just came to the store with his left eye and his right eye. Li asked about the owner and sent him to the hospital for medical treatment, which ended up losing his eyeballs through surgery. After the recovery period had passed without any information from the owner, it was compiled into the shop.
The “director” of the cat, who was guarding the old Li bed, had just been brought to the shop with blood stains on his tail and right leg, suspected of having been subjected to ill-treatment and sent to the hospital for surgical amputations and amputations. Even so, every time a customer enters the store and caressssss it, the “director” always has his eyes on the customer, with his face covered in his face, and, despite the harm experienced, they choose to believe in humanity.
Ten years has helped thousands of children find their homes.
The shop offers adoption and adoption services, in addition to cat-smuggling dogs, and often some animal protectors bring in stray dogs. At the same time, if the customer is playing in the store and has a hairy child of his or her own special interest, he or she may apply to Li for adoption.
With regard to this adoption, Li is very careful and, in order to choose a comfortable and secure home for the Mao child, a series of rigorous examinations and questions are given to the adopter. Old Lee said, “Like a cat or dog doesn't mean you can keep a cat or dog. There have been cases where fans have been adopted and returned home in the near future, causing psychological harm to the cat or dog.”
From 2014, when the first dog was helped to find the adopter, Li helped nearly 1,000 abandoned stray cats and dogs to find a warm and secure home on the road to save Mao's children.
In Li ' s social media, a caring mission was launched to help 10,000 homeless children, going through his circle of friends, each with information about the rescue of the children.
Ten years of running a shop, experiencing relocation, indebtedness and bankruptcy.
In its tenth year of operation, Li Ging, who is 40 years old, has been single, eating and squeezing with cats and dogs every day and carrying an external debt of more than $200,000 without a home or car. Old Li seems a little out of business for many to question why he didn't get a decent job.
The three years of the epidemic have been devastating for Li and the pets, which used to have over 300 square metres and hundreds of cats and dogs. With fewer customers, the cost of taking care of cats and dogs has not been reduced at all, and the high cost of renting electricity and water has made it difficult for Li to support it, while at the same time facing bank charges.
At the most difficult time, Li had almost given up, writing in the circle of friends might say goodbye to the hairy children, fearing that the cats and dogs in the shop would be homeless again. Fortunately, many strangers and loved ones have helped themselves, “a friend of mine has been a friend of mine for a long time, has never spoken or come to the store, has directly financed tens of thousands of dollars, and only wishes that the Mao children will be better.” Li Ging, with gratitude, said.
In March of this year, Li moved from his old shop to his current one, reopened, and spent $40 on pet cats and dogs, free of charge, to feed his favorite fury children, many of whom sit here all day.
“The monthly cost of rent, utilities, food for cats and dogs, medical care is more than 20,000 per month.” Li told the reporters that “thankfully, business is beginning to improve at the moment, and customers are helping with free publicity online, and when the shop is crowded on weekends, cats and dogs are waiting in line”.
Ms. Chang, who was playing with the dogs at the store, said: “Seeing the stories of Lee and the pets on the Internet, flying in a plane from Xi'an, the environment in the store, though not very good, was healing and moving. Although many of the little ones have disabilities, they are better and more curable than other pets, and have time to come back and play cards.”
To solve the problem of urban stray cats and dogs, we need more synergy.
Adoption of stray cats and dogs, sterilization, finding a home for them... Despite the care of small shops and the care of a small group of children, Li was unable to change the situation. Old Li Tan said that he had tried to find a model for solving the problem of urban stray cats and dogs on his own, and that it seemed that the road was still a long way to go: “The real solution to this problem requires a concerted effort”.
At present, the shop is mainly supported by the old Li and the mother, and an additional clerk has been recruited to help. Mom is responsible for logistics, cooking and feeding, Kobayashi is responsible for the health and feeding of the dogs, Li is responsible for walking the dogs and solving the problems of the children in the toilets.
“It is hard to look after so many cats and dogs, and it takes hours just to feed and go to the toilet. Unlike cats, dogs have to walk every day, or they have serious health and psychological problems.” The shop was open in the city, and there were a few large dogs, and Li could only walk the dogs in the early hours of the morning in order to avoid panic.
There was some movement outside the late-night shop, and all the dogs were barking, and many complaints had been received. As a result, Li and the hairy children live together every day in 60 square metres of rooms, mixed with disinfectant water and the smell of cats and dogs, which is often unbearable.
As an old customer in the store, Kobayashi told the journalist: "Li can actually live easier and get a better environment. Many customers have offered donations, but he has refused, in the fear that others may have misunderstood his profit from straying cats and dogs.” Li said, "The things that are determined will be done, even if they are so poor that they don't regret it."
At 9 p.m., Li called, “I want more people to like small animals, and on the other hand I want pets to be careful. It is important not to abandon it because of the difficulties it encounters, but to have a mature mind to accommodate them and then to have a pet”.