We took the subways as close to the the pickup location near the airport as they would allow and took a taxi the last few kilometers. I heard her meowing down the hall as the old shu shu brought her to us in her cat carrier. Surprisingly the place was practically empty. We arrived, signed in at the gate, entered the building and found a lone lady in an administrative office. She brought us to a reception room where we waited about 15 minutes. Meantime she provided a form stating everything was fine. I was anxious because my wife needed to do the paperwork and I wanted to know precisely what we were assenting to but surprisingly it was only a single form.
The same car was waiting outside and he brought us home. As soon as we were in the cab I did my best to help her relax and get comfortable. She was still meowing quite loudly but I opened her cage and she spent most of the time hiding in my oversized wind breaker, between my body and the seat. She calmed down 20 minutes into our journey and I am sure other cat owners can appreciate how much that helped us! When we got home I zipped it up and carried her up stairs in the back of my coat ;D
She was a rescue cat from the streets of a hutong near the Lama Temple. She was well cared for, received vet care, was chipped and vaccinated but unlike pandas she was treated as just another laowai when she came back to China a few months later. Animals are not safe in China. Sure, people here like cute videos but generally speaking animals are a possession which hold only a value relative to how much you can sell them for. Everyone knows the Guilin Dog Meat Festival and even domestic cats frequently vanish! It is a different culture but I wouldn't be here if I didn't see it changing, differences between each generation being quite stark. Beijing for example has a number of vegans, animal rights activists and others across the spectrum. Though it is not the norm that sort of awareness is encouraging. Even my wife who grew up in Hong Kong was afraid of kittens the first time she was confronted with them! Funny enough because that was at an establishment trying to attract Westerners. Chinese trying to sell us things are catching on fast... we like cats :-]
We had brutal fights about the place animals would have in our household and the respect they should be accorded. Less animal friendly people would accuse some of us of caring too much about animals but I believe it isn't how much we care about animals that is the problem, the ideal should be to use that love as a metric for how much more we can care about each other. We each have a different capacity according to how much 'extra' money have to support the causes we believe in and help those in need but the point is not to love one group more than others. It is to challenge ourselves to be more egalitarian and share that love more freely.
I am rambling now. Happy to report that my wife loves our cat as much as I do and actually does the majority of work taking care of her. Feel her example really vindicates my theory that having animals and learning to empathize with them helps us self-actualize the best part of ourselves
Here are just a few random pictures. The most interesting of which is the propaganda picture... looks really official, definitely encourages faith in the system!