Pet passion: dying China cat clings to owner with last breath, dog refuses to leave funeral, many moved to tears
- Cat waits for student owner, dies in her arms, disabled dog pines for dead master
- China pet market skyrockets, 70 million cat and dog owners in urban areas
People on social media in China have been deeply touched by the story of a cat that clung onto, and bit, his owner’s jumper with his last breath.
A university student known as Kaka in eastern China’s Jiangxi province posted a video of her pet’s last moments, which has amassed 1.5 million likes since April 9.
She had received a phone call from her mother the day before, saying her cat was seriously ill in her hometown in southern China’s Guangdong province.
Kaka immediately bought a high-speed train ticket and rushed home that night. The moment she walked in, the cat came into her arms and took his last breath, biting at her jumper.
“He will remember his mum’s smell and come to me again in the next life,” Kaka said.
She buried him wrapped in her jumper.
The animal’s sudden death was not explained, but British Shorthair cats are prone to genetic diseases that can lead to heart failure.
“What a wonderful animal, holding onto his last breath so that he could see his owner for the last time,” said one online observer on Weibo.
“He was in so much pain but felt better being in his mum’s arms and smelling her,” another said.
Dog refuses to leave master’s funeral
A disabled dog refused to leave a funeral parlour five days after his owner had been cremated, moving many people on social media to tears.
A man, surnamed Zhang, discovered the pet sitting quietly in front of a funeral home in central China’s Hubei province, on April 10.
A member of staff told him the owner’s funeral had been held there five days before. The dog had been waiting at the same spot since, and staff were feeding him.
Deeply moved by the dog, Zhang contacted a local animal rescue organisation. They gave him a shower and let him stay to await adoption.
The person running the rescue organisation later said he would adopt the dog: “I will make sure he has a home. He will not be abandoned because his master died.”
“A dog’s love is so much deeper than a human’s,” one person wrote on Douyin.
China’s market for pets has skyrocketed in recent years.
According to a 2022 white paper from pet industry analytical company Pethadoop, there were more than 70 million cat and dog owners in the country’s urban areas in 2022.
The figure was 2.9 per cent more than the previous year. Figures also show that the majority, 36.8 per cent of pet owners were born after 1995.
