AT FIRST GLANCE, Duo Zirong looks like your average animal lover. Sitting in her two-storey house in a village on the fringes of Shanghai that she shares with her husband and mother-in-law, she's surrounded by her beloved cats. They seem well looked after, with shiny coats, and well fed - some, it might be said, even on the large side. As Duo sits talking, several snuggle up to her, curling themselves around her arms. What's unusual is that there are more than 300 of them.
Duo has made it her life's mission to save stray or abandoned cats. She made her first rescue in 1996. At that time, she says, she didn't even like cats. 'I was scared of cats and every other kind of animal before my first kitty,' says Duo, a medical school graduate, now in her 30s.
The first rescue was problematic: Duo and her family were allergic to the cat. But driven by an overwhelming sense of responsibility, she persevered. 'These kitties need me,' she says, stroking one of what she calls her kids.
Caring for this many isn't cheap. 'It costs us 400 to 500 yuan a day just for their food,' says Duo, who feeds them fresh meat.
To afford the food and veterinary bills, Duo and her husband, Liu Junluo, an options analyst, sold their flat in the city centre in 2003 and moved to the suburbs to provide the cats with a better home.
But on Christmas Eve last year, 100 of them were taken by villagers who ransacked the house. Their actions reflect a dark reality for such animals in Shanghai.