Martha is a teacher in George Fox University where I lectured in 2004. Martha’s daughter works in Cat Adoption Team in Shirwood, Oregon. One day, Martha conducted a tour to this place referred to as a shelter of astrayed cats.

The shelter was originated by a man who was fond of cats and the fondness motivated the idea of adopting astrayed cats. It adopts the astrayed cats sent by kind-hearted people, keeps them for days or months before they are adopted by families. Those who come to adopt cats pay some money. To pay the staff, to feed the cats, and to provide cats with medical care need a great sum of money. The shelter has survived owing mainly to the donation of people.

In the shelter, I ran into some roamers, cats who enjoyed privilege of moving around as a special reward for their good appetite, strong bodies and friendly way with other cats. They were lucky compared with most of the cats kept in cages or in separated rooms. Anyhow, both cages and rooms were well preserved, clean and bright, with no unpleasant smell. Healthy and unhealthy cats were kept in different rooms; the naughty and active ones were particularly concerned. They were nicknamed “Escape artists”, so that visitors were reminded not leaving the door open, otherwise those artists might rehearse a sort of performance of escaping.

The most impressive part is the hospital. Professional and volunteer vets come in turns to check the health of the cats, give X-rays and have operations. But for the smaller sizes of the operating table, one might pass it for the operation room in normal hospitals. And it was there I found the file of each cat had been well kept since the day he or she was adopted.

The Cat Adoption Team let me see and feel how Americans value life, be it a human or an animal.

Martha is a volunteer of the shelter. Every Saturday afternoon, she goes there cleaning the cages and holding the cats. She has befriended with some cats. She greets them “Hi, baby” in a way so tender and so natural. Martha’s mother is a volunteer, too. She comes on Sunday afternoon,. Martha told us that her mother had left only a few minutes before we got there. It is a pity, for how exciting it should be when I saw Martha, her daughter, her mother meeting in the shelter. Three generations of a family serve the same place and for the same purpose: love each life created by God.

On the way back from the shelter, I asked Martha whether she was happy or not at seeing her daughter working in the shelter. She answered, “Yes, I don’t care what she does as long as she likes what she does. If she thinks her job is meaningful. I support it.”

Martha’s daughter graduated from George Fox University with a degree of three majors. She should have taken a more profitable job. “Money is not an object. What really counts is the meaning of life.” Martha said.

English Department Wu Hanmei