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Student fights depression with cat power

Lin Yu-jie is surrounded by cats as she sits in front of her computer on Saturday. Lin has helped more than 400 cats find new homes over the past five years, and she has another 150 under her care. PHOTO: LO HSIN-CHEN, TAIPEI TIMES

Lin Yu-jie (林雨潔), a senior at Kaohsiung Medical University, said that taking care of stray cats helped her fight off depression and that now she no longer needs to rely on anti-depressants.

Lin, from Pingtung City, was interested in classical music but was forced to study Chinese in college after failing to get admitted to a music department. She soon dropped out of college without her family’s knowledge.

During the year-long preparation for her second college entrance examination, Lin said she was so depressed that she was even afraid of going out of her apartment to buy a bowl of noodle soup. Things began to get better when one of her friends gave her a cat to keep her company.

Lin finally passed the examination and got into a medical school in southern Taiwan. However, she quit school soon afterward. She began to bring sick or stray cats home from night markets. She treated them, had them neutered and put them up for adoption on the Internet.

Now, Lin is back in school again. On a blog launched in 2003 detailing her experiences caring for stray cats, she said that over the past five years she has helped more than 400 cats find new homes.

With 150 more still under her care, Lin said she spends at least six hours a day taking care of them and does not usually go to bed until 2am or 3am.

Lin said she sometimes receives donations of cat food or litter boxes in the mail. Sometimes she even receives money.

People also call her for help rescuing cats. Last month, she said she had to travel from Pingtung City to Kenting to save a blind cat.

Although she enjoys what she does, she lamented that there were more cats in need of rescue than there were people willing to adopt them. She said she would like to see cat lovers adopt cats rather than buy them.

“Once people own a cat, they must commit themselves to caring for the animal, have it neutered and not abandon it,” she said.
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