A DECADE ago, Sharie Cheah witnessed an act of cruelty that would forever change the course of her life.
She saw an elderly woman using an umbrella to poke and shove a mother cat and her four tiny kittens out of a coffee shop in Island Glades. The sight was too much for Sharie to bear.
Deeply disturbed, Sharie immediately intervened. She found a box, gently placed the feline family inside, sought advice from a friend, and eventually brought the cats to a shelter in Balik Pulau, along with a donation to help cover their care.
“It was very cruel of the woman — the kittens could barely move,” Sharie, now 64, recalled in an interview with Buletin Mutiara.
That heartbreaking incident in 2015 became the turning point in her life. Since then, Sharie has rescued hundreds of stray cats and adopted ten into her home in Bukit Gelugor.
At the time, she had just taken optional retirement from her role as an Assistant Manager at Penang Development Corporation (PDC). With more time to spend with her husband, Shahril Cheah, a fellow former PDC staff member now serving as a senior manager at Penang Hill Corporation, their two children and two grandchildren, rescuing cats gradually became her calling.
“Spaying is the most important thing for strays, so they don’t keep reproducing,” she said.
Sharie explained that female cats generally need about a week to recover after being spayed, while males usually take about three days.
“But the problem is, during their recovery period, I fall in love with them and don’t want to let them go. I get attached to the cats.
“The second reason I’m reluctant to release them back to the streets is that it’s too dangerous. Wild dogs are likely to kill them.”
Instead, she puts them up for adoption through social media, particularly on Facebook, where a network of rescuers, feeders, and adopters support one another.
However, being an independent cat rescuer is no easy feat, and it certainly isn’t cheap. Sharie estimates that she spends about half of her monthly pension on cat care, including spaying (typically two cats per month), medication, and food.
Each day, she feeds about 30 cats, cleaning their containers and the neighbouring areas afterwards to prevent attracting flies.
Spaying a female cat may cost RM230 and a male cat RM180, but Sharie is grateful to several veterinary clinics in the state that offer discounted ‘charity’ rates for rescuers like her.
Some cases have been especially challenging. One involved a stray cat that walked in circles due to a head concussion. After an X-ray and a week of treatment, the medical bill came to RM2,000.
“There were times I just had to look away from helping strays. And then, when I got home, I would cry because I couldn’t rescue them — not knowing how much I’d have to spend,” Sharie shared.
An unforgettable case took place in February 2023, when she came across a brown cat with an open wound in Green Lane.
“She was bleeding, and it looked like an organ was protruding from her body. I rushed her to the vet, and she was diagnosed with cancer. What amazed me was how obedient and cooperative she was during treatment.”
The surgery cost RM2,000. Thankfully, an NGO contributed RM1,600, and Sharie topped up the rest. She named the cat Shifa, meaning “healing”, and lovingly cared for her for three months, hand-feeding her during the final month when she could no longer eat on her own.
“The day the cat died, I thought she was resting because her eyes were still open. But after a while, I realised she had passed and decided to bury her. She was just an ordinary cat, but turned out to be so beautiful. She never gave any trouble. I had photos and videos of her, but they’re gone now because I no longer have my old phone,” Sharie said.
Just last week, she took in a cat with a badly injured mouth, requiring RM400 for surgery. Thankfully, a friend has now adopted and is caring for it.
Whenever she raises funds, Sharie ensures full transparency by asking donors to transfer money directly to the veterinarian’s account.
When it comes to adoption, she is equally vigilant. Together with other rescue groups, she ensures potential adopters go through a screening process, including providing personal background details and checking if any household members are allergic to cats.
“As rescuers for many years, we can sometimes sense whether someone is genuine. If someone wants all the kittens, we reject them because one cat is usually enough for a home. We’re wary they might be sold to snake breeders.
“A cat is not a toy for you or your children. If you’re not prepared to care, spay and vaccinate for them, then don’t adopt even one,” she said firmly.
She is grateful that there are currently two shelters: one in Perlis and another in Hulu Langat, Selangor. The shelter in Hulu Langat previously accepted only cats whose owners had passed away, but has now opened up but strays have to be vaccinated and spayed.
As a passionate animal lover, she strongly supports initiatives like Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR), a humane method of managing stray cat populations.
“I believe the city council or the veterinary department should establish a shelter for cats, just as MBPP has a pound for stray dogs.
“They should also set up a rescue unit. If every county in the US can do it, why can’t we? It’s a matter of whether we care. If we do, we can surely find a way to allocate a budget.”
Sharie then shared one of Mahatma Gandhi’s most well-known quotes about animals: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
She believes in the therapeutic value of cats, advocating for their role in providing companionship and emotional support, especially to the elderly in nursing homes or inmates in prisons.
Since that fateful rescue a decade ago, Sharie has never stepped into a market.
“Would you believe I’ve not gone to a market since then? I buy fish and other items from Lotus (formerly Tesco) or shopping malls. Some people think that by dumping cats and kittens in markets, they’ll find food or sympathy. But tiny kittens can’t survive in those conditions, and that hurts me.”
Now unable to take in any more cats due to space constraints, Sharie is content caring for her current feline family: Foxy, Prince, Hazel, Hana, Nini, Petra, Tammy, Shiro, and Samson as they continue to purr their way into her heart.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Siew Chia En and courtesy of Sharie Cheah