Black cat cafe works its magic

On the walls, there are portraits of cats and a number of notes left by visitors. One read, "I hope every cat will be happy every day." Another said, "What would the world be without kitties?" Two others read, "The little cats saved a biped from an exhausting week," and "Learning about their stories, I think we should be positive about life."

The cats' average age is 2 to 3 years old. One, named "Teacher", only has three legs after being hit by a car. It survived after association workers sent it for surgery. "Grapefruit" had a serious eye infection, and when some residents found it, along with its mother and siblings, they called the association. The infection was so bad that a veterinarian had to remove one eyeball. "I hope the cafe can be a platform for people to learn about cats and promote the idea of animal protection," Du said. "Humans and animals should share this world equally. But for various reasons, many animals struggle to survive, so we need more channels to teach people how to coexist peacefully with animals."

The idea seems to be working. After the cafe went viral online, many people came to visit. Du recalled a young woman from the southwestern municipality of Chongqing who passed through Wuhan en route to her college in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

"She said she had read about the cafe online and wanted to see it, even though she was carrying a lot of luggage. It really touched me," he said.