It is difficult to clearly state by which name he is known more: Nguyen Bao Sinh - the folk poet, or Nguyen Bao Sinh - the owner of the first "dog and cat resort" in Hanoi, because both the names are associated with the very calm, innocent and natural Bao Sinh when it comes to cats.

Newspapers write, friends tell, and cat owners spread word of mouth – all things related to cats and Bao Sinh have become legendary stories. That his resort complex is a place where cats are cared for according to five-star standards with full hot water, air conditioning, television, refrigerator. That its owner earns hundreds of billions of VND and hires a few dozen people to work, from security guards and chefs to veterinarians... just to take care of cats!

Love cats everywhere

At the age of 82, the poet is still agile enough to take the writer on a tour of the property. Set amidst the grounds, the lake and the catwalks, his resort is several hundred metres wide. The first floor is the reception desk for four-legged guests to check-in and check-out like humans (of course still need support from owners).

The upper floors include a solarium, treatment room, and playroom. Specifically, the rooms are about 30 metres wide, fully equipped with stables, platforms, and food trays. They are eye-catchingly decorated with specially designed windows for guests to freely roam around without fear of escaping.

“Losing a cat is a disaster. They are very quick, especially tabby tomcats. Each time it happens, the staff must chase after them, if they cannot, they have to wait the whole night for the cats to return”, said Nguyen Bao Sinh.

When asked about an occupational accident, he freely told a story that happened a long time ago. That time, close to the check-out date, the cat died suddenly. Oops, the guest died in a leisurely position sitting against the barn wall. The staff thought the cat was fine, so they charged the bill and then opened the door to invite the owner to come pick up the pet.

“The guests were angry and scolded us. I sat down and endured the battle, accepting all the blame”, the poet laughed. “After all, people who keep dogs and cats are always emotional, easy to anger, but also easy to calm down if they find us sincere and also really love their pets.”

Nguyen Bao Sinh’s love for cats has become an anecdote. Friends still talk about a story when he was young, after the wedding, his wife got angry because he took all the money from the wedding to buy a white cat brought back from abroad.

Then the story of cuddling cats all day long, the wife was afraid of the smell of cats haunting her body and complained so much that the owner wrote a verse: "Wife often reminds me early in the afternoon/Whenever I love cats and dogs, I can't step in her room."

Bao Sinh Dog-Cat Resort is located on Truong Dinh Street, Hanoi.

In the early 2000s, the “cat resort” was also born from that love. As he joked to himself, there is nothing more fun in the world than earning money from your hobbies and passions. Just a little while, guests came to fill with all kinds of needs.

Some sent their cats to go on a business trip, some wanted the resort to take care of their cats who was about to give birth for a few weeks, some even who could not afford to raise the pets, and temporarily sent them to the resort.

“The plights of the guests are diverse. There is a woman who works in the diplomatic sector. She left her cat with us for a few years; every time she returned to the country she came to visit her pet. There is a man who was nagged by his wife, so he sent his cat guerrilla style. He would wait for his wife to leave and take them home for a few days at a time. Many people can't keep their cats, so they send their cats to the resort while they seek worthy new owners for the pets”, Sinh shared.

The flow of life is not only imprinted on the increasingly diverse needs of cat senders. As Mr. Sinh said, the names of the four-legged guests also show changes over time: “In the past, they liked Russian names like Misa, Ivan, or for anyone who loves football, they would call it Kempes.

Now, they named them Putin, Messi, Obama. Oddly, a man brought a cat to the resort to get a room. He called the cat Nguyen Bao Miu (Miu translates to kitten in English), I sat down to take notes, bewildered: I asked the cat’s name again. The man said that his name is Nguyen Bao Long, so his pet was named Nguyen Bao Miu.”

“Recently, people tend to give names in a simple and close way, like Muop (tabby tomcat), Khoai (sweet potato), and Den (Black). That is, they choose bad names to make it easier to raise pets like the old people used to do,” he said with a smile.

Special stories of cats

The special guests of poet Nguyen Bao Sinh.

In a large room in Bao Sinh Dog-Cat Resort, cats are not kept in separate rooms but live together in rows of rooms. They are well fed and taken for walks and a sunbath. The rooms are equipped with heaters to keep the cats warm in the winter.

There are many cats that Sinh has raised at his resort for free. They are homeless cats which were brought to the resort by his friends, stray cats in the area which came to the resort by themselves, as well as cats that owners couldn’t afford to raise them anymore.

As a cat lover, Bao Sinh has encountered many special stories of cats. Nearly ten years ago, a friend of his - Director, People's Artist Bach Diep - came to the resort in the last days of her life with a cage of three cats.

Already quite weak, she said a few sentences that made him remember for life: “Brother Sinh, soon I will be gone, and I don't have any concern in life but these three cats, which will be about to be orphaned after my death”. “I just think of you. The money is not the problem, I’m ready to send it, I just hope that you feed them until the end of your life or find them a new kind owner,” she went on.

Sharing his lonely friend’s concern at the end of her life, Sinh accepted her appeal but refused to take the money. Then, many years after director Bach Diep’s death, he provided the best care for her cats. Two of them were well raised until the rest of their lives, the remaining one was given to his best friend, with careful instructions.

In recent years, Sinh opened the cremation, burial, and praying services for dogs and cats.

Once, when a cat was brought to the grave, he was surprised to see five men lining up in front of the grave. They differed in age and they seemed not to be siblings, but they all cried very heard.

Then Sinh came to know that the men are workmates and have a common love for cats, thus they raise a cat together, with each taking charge for a week at a time. When the cat was gone, they all went to the funeral to bid farewell to their loved friend.

There was also a young woman who used to sit in front of her pet's grave and sobbed after the cat’s death. No one can stop her from crying, even her boyfriend and parents.

Following the stories, the old poet mentioned late musician Hong Dang, the owner of a cat named Tam. Last April, the family brought Tam's body and said that the cat refused to eat or drink, and died just a few days after the musician passed away.

According to the will of the musician, Tam was cremated, the ashes were put in a small urn and then buried on the left side of his grave in Thien Duc Cemetery.

The second owner that left deep impression on Sinh is Nguyen Hong Minh, the retired Director of High-Performance Sports Department. Minh was owner of a dog named Pinko.

When Pinko died, Minh brought the dog to be cremated at Bao Sinh Resort, and left the ashes there with a note that when he passed away, his family would come and bury him next to the dog’s grave.

“As people who are respected by society, the way Dang and Minh expressed their love for his pets makes me really touched,” poet Bao Sinh said.

Sinh stated that people's love for cats is always a special story full of emotions. “I believe that those who love animals tend to be good people and can hardly become bad people,” he concluded.

Source: Nhan Dan