From zero...

When we arrived on camp at the end of January, the above cat, named Ginger by the guest house chef, was fed out on the patio. His previous owner (who lived in the house we now occupy) left two years ago. And he left his cat behind. Above you will see that his food bowl was a plastic vegetable container, his water bowl was a plastic egg box. He was only fed at night once the monkeys were asleep. He also had to hunt for himself when the guest house staff were off , during quiet times when there were no guests and over weekends

...to Hero!

Enter the Hedges. The first day we moved into this house, Ginger arrived at the back door. Chef gave us the cat cookies from his pantry, we placed cookies in one dessert bowl, fresh water in another, in our kitchen and Ginger walked in. He sniffed, nibbled, settled down and ate his fill. Then he had a few sips of water and... the rest is history. Ginger, whom we had neutered last month, has settled down to the life of Riley in our home

I've had quite a few queries about our Sudanese-cum-South African cat so here's an update:

Because we left for SA for Kenya within a week, there wasn't time to get Shadow's travel documents in order. Innoculations had to be sent away to comply with the entry regulations of Kenya. The results were returned in order and Shadow will be able to come back to Kenya with us at the end of May. Meanwhile he is boarding in Van Niekerkshof Pet Hotel in Bloemfontein.  It is seven weeks since we last saw him, but we phone the kennel owner, Albie twice a week who says he is very well and very vocal. He seems to have decided that she and her assistant, Leomie belong to him. It is still more than six weeks before we fly to South Africa and we're really looking forward to taking him home where, of course we'll see our other five cats and three dogs being cared for by Emily.

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