Shanghai Charities: Second Chance Animal Aid

Shi Tou is burrowing under the fleecy blanket at the bottom of the cage while his puzzled foster mum looks on. Apparently, he’s not usually like this. Today is SCAA Adoption Day at O’Malley’s and around 20 cats and kittens are peeping out from cages on the second floor terrace at the Irish pub (although one cat, Liu Yi [http://scaashanghai.org/gallery2/v/adoptable_pets/cats/liuyi/], is on a lead and happy to wander about or lie sprawled out on the floor in the sun as potential adopters bustle around). Second Chance Animal Aid (SCAA) was founded in 2005 by Carol Wolfson. To date they have successfully adopted out 674 animals, 544 of which were cats and kittens. SCAA is not a shelter: it is a non profit organization which matches animals in need (usually cats but sometimes dogs and even rabbits) with ‘foster parents’, who look after the animal until a permanent home can be found.

Shi Tou (http://scaashanghai.org/gallery2/v/adoptable_pets/cats/Shi+Tou/), a two year old white and ginger cat, was lucky to find Katie, a young American woman who has been volunteering with SCAA for around two years. Katie’s story is a common one among SCAA foster parents. In the US, she grew up in the countryside and was used to being around pets. Today, she still loves animals but she is uncertain about her future plans and does not want to adopt a pet if she cannot be certain that it will be ‘for life’. Shi Tou is making it hard for her to keep this resolution. An affectionate and outgoing cat (despite his shyness at Adoption Day), he has well and truly captured Katie’s heart and she can’t understand why it is taking so long for a family to adopt him.

Cinderella: Two and a half years old, ready to be adopted, and very sweet.

Anne, a young woman from China’s Hebei province, feels the same about her feline ward, Cinderella (http://scaashanghai.org/gallery2/v/adoptable_pets/cats/Cinderella/). Anne began volunteering for SCAA in June 2009 after her pet dog of 7 years died. She soon began looking after Cinderella and has been trying to find a home for the cat ever since. Cinderella is sweet, trusting, loyal, and friendly with other pets – in fact, Anne says that the older Cinderella gets, the friendlier she becomes. She is a distinctive cat with beautiful deep greenish-yellow eyes, a very short tail and a crooked paw, the latter the result of injuries that were being inflicted when she was found by her rescuer. Someone was hitting and kicking the then 4 month old kitten.  

SCAA does outreach work, going out to schools like EF, SAS, and SCIS to educate kids about how to treat animals. There is also a rehabilitation project in Baoshan - again most emphatically not a shelter –which assists a former animal hoarder with the care of 14 dogs and over 200 cats. SCAA takes volunteers, and sometimes school or corporate groups, to the property fortnightly and assists in cleaning and looking after the animals. Volunteers are encouraged to bring supplies (like pet food or litter) and a lot of love. Projects like this, which educate people about how to treat animals humanely and look after them well, are undertaken in the hopes that injuries like Cinderella’s don’t happen again.

Ya-Ya: the eternally curious kitty who is looking for a new owner."

Ya-Ya (http://scaashanghai.org/gallery2/v/adoptable_pets/cats/Ya+Ya/) is another adult cat, confident, curious, and happily the centre of attention at a party, who has nevertheless found it hard to find a home. Now at around one year old, this young mum was found while she was having trouble giving birth to her kittens. One kitten died but another two survived and thrived under Ya-Ya’s care (she even ‘adopted’ another kitten in the home) and that of foster dad Michael, a young man from France. Michael got involved in SCAA for the same reasons as many others: he wanted the companionship of a pet but he was in no position to make a permanent commitment to own one for good. The difference is that he had direct experience of such a situation: he once lived in Nanjing and owned a cat there but, upon leaving, had to give away his pet. He did not want that to happen again so now actively supports this charity which takes such pains in matching the right pet to the right owner.

Cuddly ginger cat Mei Mei (http://scaashanghai.org/gallery2/v/adoptable_pets/cats/meimei/) is a two year old with a charming habit of chasing her tail. Her Dutch foster mum Jolanda, who has looked after her for 1 year, can’t understand why such an affectionate and easy-going cat has not found a good home yet. Jolanda also decided that she could not have a pet ‘for keeps’ in Shanghai but has just adopted two troubled cats through SCAA (make that 676 animals successfully adopted as Jolanda fills out the forms while speaking to me!). This seems to be a common occurrence (or at least, a common wish) amongst volunteers, who soon find themselves attached to special cases and animals they have personally rescued from heart-rending situations. Whilst Jolanda clearly adores Mei Mei, there are just only so many pets one person can help: She gets up to welcome two young Chinese volunteers, who have just arrived to help out at Adoption Day, in the middle of telling me about her other treasured feline wards past and present.  

Mei Mei: a big cute bundle of fur ready to take over your house

The adoption process at SCAA is not undertaken lightly. If you are interested in becoming the new owner of one of these cats above (or another, and there are many), you should expect the process to take a little time. SCAA are stringent about ensuring their animals go to good and permanent homes but do not be put off by the process. If you are not ready to make a lifelong commitment to an animal, maybe it's better for you to become one of SCAA's foster parents, or you could help out at Adoption Days, donate time and money to the care of animals, or assist SCAA in their outreach and administration activities.

Visit http://scaashanghai.org/ for more details about getting involved.