The impacts of WAB students’ service projects touch many lives. This year, those efforts are reaching some of WAB's oldest – but closest – neighbors in new ways.

If you have been on campus in the last eight years, you are likely familiar with the cats who have taken up residence near the High School. The friendly felines spend time sunbathing in the grass, relaxing in the pagoda, and walking along the banks of Duck Lake.

“A lot of the students and faculty love the cats,” Hanyi Xie, the leader of the High School student club said.  “Lots of students opt to sit outside during the autumn and summer near the pagoda so they can see and interact with the cats. The white cat is super friendly and has close bonds with a lot of faculty and students.”

As the cats have become more integrated into the community over the years, the school and student groups have taken on more responsibility to ensure their safety. As the winter months approached this school year, they worked together to ensure the cats’ health, as well as the health of the students and faculty with whom they interact. In order to keep the cats on campus, the students agreed to raise money to provide vaccinations for each of them, but soon their plans to care for them expanded even further.

“Our plan changed when our teacher supervisors, Ms. Wenjing and Ms. Rong from the China Studies Department, found a stray cat charity in Beijing that helps foster cats,” Hanyi said. “We decided to increase our goal from raising enough money for vaccinations to raising enough money for the cats to stay at the winter shelter for two months, as well as health checks, and spay and neutering operations.”

By raising money at the Charity Bazaar, partnering with calligraphy artists to sell artwork, outreach among the student community, and combining efforts with a cat support group in the Middle School, the students raised more than RMB20,000 to cover all of their costs.

There are now five healthy, vaccinated WAB cats staying warm during the winter at Bo Yu Pet Foster Center, awaiting the return of spring temperatures to come back to their homes on campus. Four of the cats have been neutered or spayed, while the fifth was too old for the procedure.

These are most certainly not the first efforts student groups have made to help the cats on campus. There are on-going food donation events and fundraisers, and previous student groups have built shelters for them. In 2019, Grade 5 students studying a unit on energy focused on the concept of insulation and ended up taking the cats on as a “client” and applied their skills by building water bowls that would prevent water from freezing in the winter.

If you’d like to support the students in their efforts to care for the cats, scan the QR code above or drop by the High School entrance and look for the cat food dropbox.

Keep an eye out for a group of healthy, happy, and friendly cats on campus this spring!