Ginger the amazing red cat.

This is not something my cat did, but a cat that belongs to a neighbor of mine. His name is Ginger, at least that’s what we call him. He is a great big red cat with 6 toes and he is BFF with one of my resque Ziggy.

Ziggy is the fluffball below:

Ziggy is a cat we rescued from a vacated home in Berkeley, CA after his masters, UC Berkeley students, went back home after graduation and left him behind (yes, I know, expensive college education and still assholes).

My daughter also graduated, but she brought Ziggy home with her. Ziggy is as adorable as they come and spent the first year with us indoors, but then he let us know he wanted to go outside. At first we were apprehensive, but eventually we realized that all he did was go in our backyard and visit with Ginger. They were “window buddies” and now finally they got to meet each other.

I was concerned about Ginger because he spent more time at my home than elsewhere. We fed him, we even let him sleep inside from time to time. Eventually, we posted a message on Nextdoor and we discovered he indeed belonged to a neighbor.

Time goes by and Ginger is practically like one of those teenagers that spend more time at his friend’s parents homes than his own. Always very friendly but also clearly independent and quiet. He was Ziggy’s friend, not ours.

One night, we heard this crying outside our bedroom window and we couldn't figure out who it was. We checked all our cats (we have 7, 5 of them rescues, the other two also rescues, but ones we officially adopted rather than having them show up at our home and cost us a fortune in vet bills) and they were all safe. I looked outside and I couldn't see anything. It was late evening and quite dark.

The crying continues, until I go check at the front door. Nobody. I close the door, go back inside and the crying starts again.

I open the door again and there is Ginger [Unfortunately, I cannot find a photo of him, but he is gorgeous and really big for a housecat], Ginger looks at me but doesn’t cry. We look at each other and I start talking to him:

“What’s up boy? Is something wrong? Are you hungry?

I went on like that for a bit, then I went downstairs to pick up water and some food for him. That’s something I do anyway for the local strays and I figured maybe Ginger was hungry.

I return with the food and water, open the door and I see a mouse. At least, that’s what the black tiny thing on my doorstep looked like. I turn on the porch light and immediately I realize the “mouse” is a tiny black kitten softly crying on my doorstep.

I put the food and water down and pick up Kitten, at that moment Ginger comes out from behind a bush where he was hiding. Immediately, I call my wife and tell her to grab a towel and prepare one of the cat beds in the service bathroom while I hold kitten and keep him warm. Meanwhile, Ginger completely ignores the food but circles around me, looking at me and Kitten with an intensity I had never experienced before from a house cat.

As I leave the porch to carry Kitten to the bathroom, I turn around and Ginger is still on the porch looking at me with his head tilted and the same intense look on his face.

Here is Kitten a day after the ordeal:

I set up Kitten in the bathroom and immediately I get on Nextdoor asking the neighbors if anyone is missing a kitten, already knowing that he would have been too young to escape from someone’s house. I post my plea for help and go back to the door. Ginger is waiting for me as if expecting a Military SITREP (Situation report). He reminded me of my old army Captain: totally mission focused.

Naturally, I fuss over him and my wife joins me. I tell him what a good boy he had been and he lapped it all up. After getting a few pets, while he kept looking inside the house as if to make sure everything was in order, he finally went to eat the food (that by now also gained a few treats) and started eating. His mission accomplished, he ate, drank and left.

No more cries from him. He had never cried before and hasn’t since, even though he is constantly around the house.

Kitten, for the record, did very well. A neighbor brought us some kitten milk and a bunch of age appropriate food (Thank you if you are reading this) and eventually through another neighbor we found a local charity to put him up for adoption. He went to a loving family and I am sure he is very happy.

I still find it hard to believe that Ginger, as a male cat, was capable of making a chain of decisions of that caliber. He figured that out of all the nearby homes, we were the best candidate to take care of the little stray. Not his masters, not the other homes with cats he frequents, but us. And he was right too.

Then he must have carried Kitten for some distance, hid him by the side of the house (where we have a sheltered refuge for any animal that is stuck outside for any reason), he made enough of a racket to get our attention and he placed Kitten where he was reasonably sure he’d be taken care of, but first he checked that I was aware something was going on. He didn’t just plopped Kitten on my doorstep, but he planned his cries so that at least one of us moved from where we were watching TV to the front door. Once he knew I was there and that I would return with food, he left Kitten there by himself so I wouldn't get distracted and left him outside.

I may be reading too much in his actions that night, but I think Ginger is a very smart cat hero, at least to Kitten he surely is.