This is my cat Ginger Ninja, he’s quite an extraordinary chap.  We’ll go back to 2011, the year Ninja was born.  My daughter was staying with me at the time and she was looking for a job when she came across an advert for baby Ninja and his sister, they were looking for a home.   I promised her that when she found a job we could get both the kittens if they were still available.   Weeks went by before she got a job, she immediately went in search of Ninja again. Surprisingly he was still available but his sister was taken.   That is how Ninja entered our lives.

We live directly across the road from a nature reserve, where antelope, dassies and other wildlife roam freely, including a lot of bird life and harmless snakes.  Ninja was always fascinated with the nature reserve, and when he was about 6 months I remember him sitting outside our perimeter fence gazing across the road at the birds on the fence.  Now this is a busy road through the suburbs, in the morning, peak hour traffic is bumper to bumper.  Then one day we noticed that Ninja was nowhere to be seen all day and then just before sunset he would appear.  This went on for a long time and we thought he might be going down the stormwater gutter in the road. One evening just before sunset I waited at the fence and I was lucky enough to witness Ninja coming out of the nature reserve looking and listening until the sound of the traffic has subsided, only then did he cross.   He’s been doing this for 5 years now, he has impeccable timing and usually comes in just as I’m giving our other cats breakfast.  As soon as he’s eaten he’s off, only to come back again just before sunset, the time varies depending on the season, but I always know when he’ll be back. During the hot summer months, he might pop in during the day to have a drink from our water fountain, but he doesn’t hang around too long. Once or twice he hasn’t come home at all for breakfast, but I can only assume he found something worthwhile eating in the reserve.  When he doesn’t show up I usually go and have a look to see if there are any bodies lying in the road, and if I don’t see any I know he’s OK.  He’s a beautiful cat, strong and muscular, but unfortunately has the agenda of a businessman.Ninja1

Witness