Street cats are some of the toughest you can find due to their resilience in surviving against all odds.
Ginger was one such cat before he was adopted by Dr Chan Kah Yein. Chan runs the NGO Animalcare and together with Ginger, she adopted his sister Rosie and mother Daffodil, both of whom are sadly deceased.
According to Chan, 60, Ginger can out-smart anyone when it comes to hatching plans to get his paws on a simple treat or to persuade humans to gently stroke his head. Clearly, when he sets his heart on something, he’s willing to jump through hoops to get it.
Lesson to be learnt here: don’t be fooled by his innocent face! “Only he knows what’s going on in his own head,” Chan said, laughing.
Ginger absolutely adores people, Chan’s two-year-old grandson in particular, who the cat became attached to when the boy was just a baby.
Assigning himself to the duty of bodyguard, Ginger would lie down next to the baby every time the boy visited. Before long, the two were playing together.
“They would wrestle sometimes and my grandson would sit on him. But don’t worry, he’d wiggle off after a while and never let himself get hurt,” Chan said of the smart Ginger.
Ginger eats a BARF diet which stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods. This consists of raw meat, ground bones, cooked vegetables and fruits for fibre.
He does adore canned food and kibbles as the occasional treat, but truth be told, this cat is downright greedy and rejects nothing handed to him.
Speaking to FMT Lifestyle about how Ginger came to be adopted, Chan said he and his family lived in a playground near her house. But one day, she found Ginger sitting in one of the cages in her patio with an injured paw that was gangrenous.
Looks like the intuitive cat knew that Chan would care for him. And care for him she did.
But even after his paw had healed, Ginger stayed put. In fact, he made himself right at home, even calling his family to come on over and join Chan’s brood of rescued cats.
Ginger is 13 years old today and is the self-declared king of Chan’s household. But despite his title, Ginger is a humble and dependable lad, even helping Chan look after the other rescues she brings home.
If there’s one black mark on Ginger’s report card, it would have to be his tendency to fight with Indy, his housemate.
They two cannot see eye to eye and have had their share of spats, often resulting in trips to the veterinarian to treat cuts and slashes – ouch!
“This is why I separate my patio into two sections now to keep them apart,” Chan said, shaking her head.
This article was written by Toon Kit Yi @ FMT Lifestyle. Read more pet stories here.
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