China Scene: West

Pregnant pussycat rescue takes 5 days, 100 people

A pregnant cat, with the help from about 100 people in five days, finally safely came down from a tall tree.

Last Sunday, a muddled pregnant cat climbed to the top of a 20-meter-tall tree in Xi'an, capital of Northwest Shaanxi Province, and was unable to get down. Residents saw the problem and tried many ways to help the cat over the next five days. Finally, with someone in the tree to urge the cat down, they rescued her by holding bed sheets to catch her when she dropped.

(www.xaonline.com)

Foundling gets surgery, new home in Sichuan

A rural woman in Nanchong, Sichuan, adopted an 8-month-old boy without an anus who had been abandoned by his mother, and borrowed 2,700 yuan ($346) to treat him.

Chen Honglan found the boy, named Tong Tong, about three weeks ago as she passed the Nanchong bureau of civil affairs, where he had been left in a large bamboo basket with a note telling the date of his birth and his name, and asking a kind-hearted person to adopt him. Doing odd jobs to support her family, Chen took Tong Tong home and sent him to hospital, where doctors operated immediately and returned part of his medical fees. A few citizens have also donated money. Tong Tong is recovering.

(Sichuan Daily)

Woman in marital mess lives in police station

A woman in Yulin, Shaanxi, is living in a local police station after an uncomfortable situation involving the families of two men one to whom she was betrothed and the other whom she loves.

Ma Qingxia was to marry a local young man surnamed Zheng, but the marriage was arranged by her parents, and she loved another man, surnamed Cui.

Cui and Ma ran away before she was due to travel to Zheng's hometown for the wedding on December 17. When police later found Ma with Cui, she told them her feelings.

Her parents doesn't want her back as they believe the elopement caused them to lose face; Zheng's family don't want her because she doesn't love their son; and although Cui's family wants her, police say that is illegal.

(Sanqin Daily)

(China Daily 01/16/2007 page6)