Kim Bong-kyu, 'cat detective'
.jpg?w=728)
/ Yonhap
Kim Bong-kyu, 45, gets at least 20 calls each day from people who need help finding their missing kittens.
It has been fifteen years since he started finding kittens for his neighbors, according to Yonhap News Agency.
"I started by helping find cats that were seen on ‘missing pet’ posters on telephone poles," Kim said, "It hurt my heart to see the people who had lost their cats, and then I gradually became well-known by the word of mouth."
An Internet community called “Cat Lovers” eventually made him an official and dubbed him the "hero of all our missing cats.”
Korea Animal Rights Advocates, an animal protection group, states on its blog that Kim worked to save stray cats in a 2006 case, during which cats trapped in a abandoned basement were being taken away to be euthanized.
There are currently over 250,000 stray cats in the streets of Seoul, according to the local government. One official said that it takes over 100,000 won ($95) to rescue one stray cat off the streets.
Kim told Yonhap, "You can just call your cats back when it's a dark night. Kittens are unpredictable and act on an instinctive basis."