14 Years of Love and Care

By Yan Biyu and Zhou Xianxian

A t roughly five o’clock each afternoon,a silver-haired hunched old woman struggles to drag her small cart in the Chutianliyuan Community in Wuhan, Hubei. This woman has been feeding stray cats in the community for fourteen consecutive years.

I’ll eat after the cat finishes its meal

Hu Qifen is a 79-year-old lady with a thin figure and wrinkles on her face. Despite her age, she is dynamic and energetic, with a clear mind. We interviewed her on a scorching hot day in Wuhan, one of the “three furnaces” in China.Our arrival made her a bit uneasy atfirst, but after we explained our vision, she became calm and told us her story in a slow manner.

Her encounters with stray cats began with an accidental occasion. One afternoon, she came back from a trip and saw four hungry, skinny stray cats near her house. Seeing it, she felt very sympathetic. She went to the market for some leftovers to feed them. She didn’t expect what happened next. The cats started to wait for her every day in the same place. When they spotted her,the cats would gather round in anticipation.

胡奶奶和她的手推车Granny Hu and her handcart

Day after day, month after month, the number of cats in the community gradually increased,and they gathered in several corners of the community. Before long, there were not enough leftovers in the market for them,so having enough cat food became a problem for her. Hu could not bear to starve them, so she started cooking for the cats. It took her more than two hours a day to cook for them, and this has continued for twelve years. After feeding the cats, she returned home to make her own meal. Sometimes,she dids’t eat till ten at night.She jokingly said as she patted the mosquitoes, “They’re very punctual. I’m afraid that they may go away after waiting too long for my food, and they would starve if they couldn’t find anything to feed themselves. So I have to be punctual.”

胡奶奶给流浪猫喂食Granny Hu feeding the stray cats

Gradually, she felt powerless to buy the items and cook for stray cats every day. Last year, she began to buy cat food instead of cooking for them.

She told us that more than sixty cats in the community might eat up to seven catties of cat food in a day and she had to buy more than 200 catties a month. In addition,she also bought medicine for sick stray cats and sprayed pest repellents, costing her nearly 2,000 yuan a month.

Take care of the stray cats as her own

Although she feeds stray cats,Hu is particularly meticulous.To prevent dust, rain, and other particles from falling into the cat food, she has hitched a plastic sheet to her handcart. Before feeding the cats, she uses a broom to clean up the area where the cats are fed, then sets a clean container out and fills it with food. When a kitten has difficulty digesting,she puts the cat food in the boiled water so that the food would be soft and easy for digestion.Sometimes when a kitten disappears and its mother mews around her in a panic, she would take a lot of time and energy to help the mother.

Granny Hu was particularly concerned about an old sick cat.Years ago, she saw it on the side of the road, sick and dirty. She took it to the pet hospital for treatment and bathing. However, the hospital refused to take the dirty cat, afraid of infectious diseases.She had to wash it herself and her hands were accidentally scratched. Furthermore the cat was a slow eater and other cats would steal its food. Therefore,she would watch the cat until it finished eating. Granny Hu bought some anti-inflammatory drugs for it too, broke them up and put them into the cat food.With her care, the cat still lives to this day.

When a hungry cat comes along, she always bends down to give it a few scoops of food.She even knows which cats are missing in the community. If she hasn’t seen a cat for a few days,she worries about it. She looks around anxiously to find it. One day she didn’t return home until eleven o’clock at night because a cat was missing and she felt compelled to make sure it was okay.

Eye surgery is still prolonging

When she was young, Hu suffered from the LDH (lumbar disc herniation) because of her long time office work. As she gets older,it has become aggravated. She was originally a member of this community, but she moved to live in the neighborhood because she wanted to help her daughter.Every day, she hauls her cart from her new neighborhood to feed the cats. A distance of three or four hundred meters is a severe test for an old lady suffering from lumbar damage, especially on a scorching summer day and in the freezing wintertime. “I walk, rest for a while, and arrive here generally after resting three times,” She told us, leaning over her slightly hunched body.

During one Spring Festival,Granny Hu had a fever of 39 degrees Celsius. She felt uncomfortable and dizzy. She skipped feeding the cats and took a dose of medicine to help her sleep. When she later awoke feeling a little better, she was worried about the cats, and came over to the neighborhood to see them. Unexpectedly, the cats were still crouching there, waiting for her. She had to turn back to her house and fetch the cat food to feed them.

Granny Hu lives alone, her daughter being in Shanghai.When her daughter gave birth,she asked her husband, an eightyyear-old man, to help care for her daughter in Shanghai. “I know it’s a little inhumane, but when I’m gone, who will take care of these cats? I can’t leave.” She then pointed to her eyes. “The doctor told me to have an eye surgery long ago, but it would take two weeks to do it. These cats will be uncared for if I do leave for such a long time.”

Because of her daily cat feeding, some of her friends began to think her house smelly and some were afraid of catching some kind of infection, so they gradually lost contact. She laughed and said she was “divorced from the masses”and dealing with cats all day.

In fact, it’s not just the cats that are inseparable from her, she is also inseparable from these cats. With them, she finds life much more amusing than living alone. “Have you ever thought about the day when you can’t feed these cats?”

Granny Hu was silent for a while after hearing our question. “This is what I have been worried about…”She did not know how long she could keep feeding them. “Maybe I have spoiled them so they can’t feed themselves,” Granny Hu blamed herself. “But I can’t bear to see them starve to death. What should I do?”

每天下午五点多，在中国湖北省武汉市一个叫楚天丽园的小区里，总能见到一位佝偻着腰，费劲地拖着小推车的银发老太太。她在小区里辗转着喂流浪猫，十四年如一日，从未间断过。

猫吃完了我再吃

老太太名叫胡其芬，今年79岁，即将步入耄耋之年的她，身材瘦削，脸上布满皱纹，但精神矍铄，思路非常清晰。我们采访她时，“三大火炉”之一的武汉正值中伏天气，骄阳似火，气温接近40摄氏度。我们的到来令她感到很突然，待我们说明来意后，她才镇定下来，慢慢地跟我们聊起她与这个小区里流浪猫的往事。

她与这些流浪猫的缘分，起源于一次偶然的邂逅。十几年前的一天下午，她外出回来，看到自己家附近有四只流浪猫，饿得有气无力，瘦骨嶙峋，她觉得怪可怜的，就到菜场上要来一些剩余的卤菜喂它们。没承想这一喂就收不住了，这些猫每天都到这个天上掉馅饼的幸运之地等待她，一见她总是满眼期待地围过来。

一天两天，一个月两个月，慢慢地，小区里的猫越来越多，它们分别集中在小区里几处角落。没多久，菜市场的剩菜就不够吃了。猫粮成了一个问题。胡老太太不忍心饿着它们，就开始给猫做饭，每天要花两个多小时，一煮就是十二年，而且每天都是喂完猫才回去做自己吃的，有时一耽搁，晚上十点还吃不上。她边赶着蚊子边风趣地说：“它们非常准时，我怕它们等不到我就走开，然后又找不着吃的，挨饿！所以，我也得准时。”

渐渐地，她越来越觉得，每天买菜做饭给流浪猫吃，有些力不从心了。去年，她知道了猫粮的存在，就改喂饭为喂猫粮了。

她告诉我们，小区里的六十多只猫，一天就能吃掉7斤猫粮，每个月要买200多斤。除了猫粮，胡老太太还会给生病的流浪猫买药，在猫吃东西的地方喷防虫药，每个月要为这些猫开销近两千元。

把流浪猫当自家猫打理

虽说胡老太太喂的是流浪猫，她却格外细致讲究。为防止灰尘、雨水等掉进猫粮里，她在拖车上搭上塑料布。每次喂猫前，她都要用扫帚清理放猫粮的地方，然后摆上洗净的容器，再给猫盛上粮。小猫消化不好，她就把猫粮用开水泡一泡再给它们吃。有时候，小猫不见了，母猫慌得围着她嚷嚷，她只好帮它找，累得她够呛。

有一只老病猫让胡老太太特别揪心。几年前，胡老太太在路边看见这只老猫，浑身污垢，病怏怏的。胡老太太把它带去宠物医院看病洗澡，医院嫌猫太脏，又怕传染病，拒绝了。她就自己给它洗，手指还被它给挠破了。老猫吃东西慢，总有黑猫过来抢，她就一直守着老猫吃完再走。它总是发炎，胡老太太就帮它买消炎药，弄碎以后放猫粮里。悉心呵护下，这只猫活到了现在。

遇上贪吃的猫，她也会停下来再给上两勺。社区里哪只猫不见了，她一眼就能发觉。要是几天没看见，她心里就难受，担心猫出了什么事，着急地到处找，有一次找到晚上十一点，直到看见猫没事才安心。

眼疾手术还拖着

胡老太太年轻时，因坐办公室太久，落下了腰椎盘突出的毛病，年纪大了，更加变本加厉了。她原本是这个小区里的一员，由于要帮女儿看家，她搬到隔壁小区去住。每天，她都是拖着小车从隔壁的小区回这里喂猫。短短的三四百米距离，对一个饱受腰椎疾病折磨的她来说，是一个严峻的考验，尤其是炎热的夏天和冰雪寒冷的冬天。“我走一走，歇一歇，一般歇三气就到了。”胡老太太偏着微驼的身体对我们说道。

有一年春节，胡老太太高烧39摄氏度，人很不舒服，头晕目眩。为了给猫喂食，她给自己加了药量，醒来时，身体是轻松了些，但已到晚上十点。她思来想去，还是放心不下，就来小区看看，没想到那些猫依然蹲在那里等她，胡老太太只好又折回自己小区，拖来猫粮喂它们。

胡老太太一个人住，女儿在上海。女儿生孩子时，要老太太去上海帮忙照顾，她因为放心不下这些猫，就让八十多岁的老伴去。“我也知道这很不像话，但是我走了，这些猫怎么办啊？离不开啊！”她指了指自己的眼睛，“医生早就让我去做眼睛的手术，可一做就需要两个星期，这些猫没人管啊！”

因为她喂野猫的事，一些朋友嫌她家里有味道，有的怕沾惹上什么传染病，渐渐也不和她来往了。她笑着说自己“脱离群众”，成天和猫打交道。

其实，不光是这些猫离不开她，她也离不开这些猫了。和这些猫在一起，她觉得比一个人有意思得多。“您有没有想过，您哪天喂不动了，这些猫怎么办啊？”面对这个问题，胡老太太沉默了一会儿，“这是我一直着急的事……”她也不知道自己还能喂多久。“也许是我害了它们，让它们不会自己找吃的了，”胡老太太自责道，“但是看着它们饿死，我实在是不忍心，你说怎么办才好呢？”