Catcalls? She reacts to mews  (Article in STREATS on the November 16, 2004)

Her compassion shows  (Article in STREATS on the December 31, 2004)

Acts of loving kindness  (Article in Straits Times – LIFESTYLE on January 09, 2005)

November 16, 2004

Catcalls? She reacts to mews

Woman spends all her free time and $3,800 a month to run shelter for strays

By Sharlene Tan

SHE is so devoted to Metta Cattery, a shelter for stray cats, that you can find her there every day after work and all day on weekends and public holidays.

Ms Lee Siew Ying, 52, would not even mind living there, provided there was space and it was in a less remote location.

She runs the cattery at Pasir Ris Farmway 2, which she started four years ago after she had to move from her pet-filled terrace house to an HDB flat.

Although there are about 15 regular volunteers, Ms Lee spends almost all her free time tending to the animals.

"When my volunteers can't make it down, they can call and say, "I can't make it.' But who am I going to call."

"Can I tell you to open the can of food yourself?" she cooed at one of the cats purring at her feet.

Despite there being nearly 120 cats at Metta Cattery ("metta" means "loving kindness" to Buddhists), Ms Lee, who works at a Pasir Ris clinic as a billings administrator, can call all of them by name and recounted some of their sad plights.

There's Simbal, who likes to claim the wooden stool in the backyard as his own regal perch. And Tania, the affectionate three-month-old who loves to climb onto Ms Lee's shoulder.

Tania was one of five kittens which had been placed in plastic bags by someone out to suffocate them. Only Tania and her sister Sonia survived.

The cats are housed in a compound about the size of a three-room flat.

"There wasn't a place to house them after sterilisation and also a place was needed for the sick ones. Metta Cattery is like a halfway house for the cats," said Ms Lee, who has severe asthma.

She said it takes about $3,800 a month to run Metta Cattery, not including vet fees, which can sometimes go up to $500 for one animal.

As the cattery is not a registered society, it depends on donations in kind and volunteers. The cattery has its own homepage, www.mettacats.org, which has pictures of the cats for adoption.

Ms Lee's 22-year-old son also shares her love for animals.

"He used to smuggle stray kittens home when he was in secondary school. He would wait until dark and hide the kittens under his shirt," she said, chuckling.

He regularly helps out at the cattery, especially when animals need to be ferried to the vet.

Ms Lee's animal rescue is not confined to cats. There are several stray dogs and Ms Lee is even nursing a pigeon back to health after she found it floundering behind the clinic.

不满的呼声？她对猫的叫声作出的反应。

 妇女付出所有的空余时间和每月$3,800.00经营野猫庇护所。

 她全心奉献给爱心猫之家，野猫的庇护所，每天下班后和每个周末及公共假期，你都可以在那里找到她。李秀燕女士，52岁，在有足够的空间和减少遥远的位置的条件下，她不介意在这里居住。

她经营的猫之家位于Pasir Ris Farmway 2,　四年前，当她从住满宠物的排屋搬迁到政府组屋时开始。虽然有大约15名固定的义工，李女士还是将她空闲的时间用来照料这里的动物。

“当我的义工们不能来帮忙时，他们可以打个电话说‘我不能来帮忙’。如果我不能来又能打电话给谁呢？”

“你可以自己把罐头打开吗？”她对在脚边其中之一只叫着的猫儿温柔地说。

尽管在爱心猫之家有接近120只猫（“metta”在 佛教的教意是“仁慈的爱心”）, 李女士，巴士立诊所的开发单据的行政人员，可以叫出每一只猫的名字和详述一些猫儿的苦难处境。

Simbal,　喜欢占据后院的木凳子作为他的豪华坐位。和Tania，这只三个月的可爱小猫则喜爱爬上李女士的肩膀。

Tania是五只小猫被人装在塑胶袋内想令它们窒息的其中之一。只有Tania和她的姐妹Sonia侥幸生存。

猫儿居住的院子面积只有三房式组屋般大小。

“没有地方能誏它们绝育后居住，并且生病时的修养。爱心猫之家好像是猫儿的中途停泊站，”李女士说，她有严重的哮喘病。

她说每个月须要大约$3,800.00来经营爱心猫之家，不包括兽医费用，有时一只动物的医疗费用可高达$500.00。

由于猫之家不是注册的社团，它的费用全依靠善心人士的捐助和义工的帮助。猫之家有自己的网站，www.mettacats.org　那里有等待领养猫儿的照片。

李女士22岁的儿子与她一起分担对动物的爱。

“中二时，他时常偷带小野猫回家。他等到天黑后，把小猫藏匿在衬衫內，”她说，抿着嘴轻声地笑。

他经常在猫之家帮忙，特别是动物须要载去兽医诊所的时候。

 李女士拯救的动物不局限于猫。那里也有几只狗和李女士在诊疗所后面发现不断挣扎的鸽子，带回去护理它直至复原为止。

December 31, 2004

Her compassion shows

Ms Lee Siew Ying, 52
Billings clerk and founder of Metta Cattery

STEP into Metta Cattery and the number of cats in the compound overwhelms you.

There are some 120 cats wandering around, and some recuperating, in the shelter about the size of a three-room flat. Some dogs take turns barking at each other outside.

It is at this little sanctuary for unwanted animals at Pasir Ris that cattery founder Ms Lee Siew Ying spends her time after work every day, and on weekends, despite the heat, the small enclosure and her asthma.

She rarely leaves before midnight.

Whatever you think of her actions, her commitment is undeniable.

As she walked this reporter around during a recent interview, she affectionately called out to each of the cats by name, telling of how she found them or how they were taken to the cattery by their former owners.

She has also gone beyond just looking after cats - the shelter now has 13 dogs, including three shih tzus found at a canine breeder's farm in Pasir Ris, with their fur gone and their bodies crawling with maggots.

"They're doing much better now after the 3 1/2 weeks with us. They've started to gain some weight," Ms Lee told Streats.

Ms Lee, a billings administrator at a Pasir Ris clinic, started the shelter in 2000 when she moved from a terrace house to an HDB flat and could no longer keep all the strays she had.

It takes nearly $4,000 to run the cattery each month, excluding vet fees.

The cattery, which is not a registered society, depends on donations-in-kind and a small group of volunteers, who help with the website (http://www.mettacats.org/) and feed and clean the animals.

Lee's 22-year-old son also helps out, taking the animals to the vet for vaccinations and sterilisations.