On the anniversary of the world’s first coronavirus lockdown, in the Chinese city of Wuhan, life for animal lover Du Fan has returned to something like normal. That means Du and his organisation, the Wuhan Small Animals Protection Association, can focus their energy on rescuing, caring and finding homes for stray cats and dogs. Twelve months ago, however, Du, 38, and his group were faced with a whole new problem – saving pets who had homes, but whose owners were unable to provide them with daily necessities when the city where the coronavirus emerged went into lockdown. So they began a project that eventually led to them saving more than 10,000 pets from more than 5,000 households, Du said. Getting into residential compounds sometimes required the gift of the gab or special passes. And to get into flats, Du’s team would hire locksmiths, with the owner’s consent, to open doors. Ninety-five percent of the pets left home alone were cats.