Rising trend of adoption is saving animals from disease and the dog meat trade to give them the forever home every cat and dog deserves.

China’s love of cats and dogs has grown exponentially in recent years and today the country is officially home to more than 100 million registered companion animals.

Sadly, not all guardians take their responsibility seriously and too many companion animals aren’t being neutered or are finding themselves abandoned when their guardian’s situation changes.

On the streets, these abandoned dogs and cats are vulnerable to accidents, disease, starvation and even being snatched for the dog meat trade.

But animal lovers across the country are fighting back. Spaying, neutering and adoption are on the rise and this compassion is giving abandoned dogs and cats the forever homes they deserve.

Animals Asia’s Cat and Dog Team Director Irene Feng said:

“Raising awareness of the need to neuter companion animals is absolutely key, but we also need to reduce abandonment and increase adoption. We’ve found that by sharing positive adoption stories of our supporters on social media we can do exactly this.

“These loving stories prove former strays make the most wonderful companion animals and the relationships set positive role models for existing guardians.”

Here are just some of the amazing human-animal relationships which are convincing China’s dog lovers to adopt, not shop.

Bobby was originally kept in a noodle restaurant in front of my parents’ home. My parents saw her all the time when passing by, so Bobby was quite a long-term friend of ours.

Sometimes we even took Bobby with us to buy food when we saw her wandering around. The owner of the noodle restaurant knew we liked Bobby and let the dog stay with us when he had to go out of town.

But when the owner’s family had a baby, they decided to send Bobby away. We couldn’t let that happen and volunteered to take care of her straight away!

Bobby ate too much human food in the past, and had a serious skin problem. But we got her treated and now she gets a healthy diet. She is now as pretty and happy as a princess!

January last year was the coldest month of the whole winter. But right at this time, poor Meimei was abandoned by her guardians because they broke up.

To make it even worse, Meimei was less than a year old, and had just given birth to four puppies two days before.

My boyfriend and I used two boxes to take all the dogs home with us. But sadly, one baby didn’t make it that night. Meimei had fever due to a lack of calcium after labour, so we were busy taking care of the mum and the little ones at that time.

Luckily everything’s fine now. We found responsible forever homes for the puppies and have decided to keep Meimei with us. She has become great pals with my other dog and we can’t imagine life without her.

I work in a kindergarten and that is where I found my little kitty. My principal and I found him alone and immediately got a box and some old clothes to set up a warm place for him to stay. We took turns feeding him and everything went really smooth as he grew bigger and stronger. Then came three days of public holiday and someone had to take the kitten home to look after.

That’s when I stepped up and now that scared, lonely little kitten has become my beloved cat Xiao Ai, and he is almost one year old!

I’ve been a dog lover since I was small, and often dreamed about having my own dog. Then I saw my colleague’s dog Laifu! He’s a furry and pretty Pomeranian.

My colleague promised to give me one of Laifu’s puppies, so I waited and waited – for three years!

No puppies arrived and I got another dog, a golden retriever called Peanut. Peanut made us a beautiful family of three and we were very happy.

But when Peanut was six months old, my colleague confessed she was going to send Laifu away.

My wife and I were horrified and felt pity for Laifu. Needless to say, Laifu has become a part of our family. Now we are a family of four, it’s hard work, but we are happier than ever.

Before I met Gougou, she was thrown from the fifth floor of a building by some local children.

Luckily for Gougou, she became stuck in a tree on the way down and survived.

But those awful children didn’t let her go. They pulled her chain and dragged her around.

She would have died from this torture, but thankfully some women passed by and rescued her from certain death.

They kept Gougou at a local market which is where I met her and fell in love.

I told my husband, “If she follows me when I call her, then we’ll take her home.”

When I call “Gougou” – which means “doggy” in Chinese – she stood up, and came straight to me.

She’s been with us now for two years. She is neutered, healthy, and very clingy – probably as a result of her suffering.

She reminds me of my last dog who passed away and sometimes I feel she is like an angel sent by my dog in heaven.

Dizhu is a white Poodle, who adopted me.

He followed me all the way home when I was out walking my dog. I tried to find his guardian for two months, but no one came to ask about him so now I look after him.

He has heart disease and a problem with his hip joint that will require long-term medication but now he is family and I’ll love him forever.

I first met my dog Minmin when I was out eating. He sat right next to my feet and told me with big round eyes that he’d like to share my dinner!

I thought he belonged to the stall owner, so I didn’t pay him much attention. But when I saw him the next time I was there, he followed me all over and owner told me it wasn’t his dog.

I decided right there and then that he could come and live with us. He is such a good boy with my kids – both my five year-old daughter and seven month-old son love him to bits.

My dog Choushi was found near my girlfriend’s dorm about two years ago. He was there in the street all the time and one rainy day we took pity on him and took him into our room. Now we have both graduated and Choushi is still with us. Wherever we go, Choushi comes too.

Socks was found on our campus by my classmate. The moment I saw him I fell madly in love with him! That’s how he came to live with my family. At first he was so small he couldn’t eat solid food, but now he is big enough to eat cat food, and seems to have grown into quite the little piglet!

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