The tiger who came to tea... and stayed forever – Skipton human resources expert Sarah Seastron and her purrfect pal Ginger
Ginger nonchalantly turned up on my doorstep about five years ago alongside a black and white cat. He was very, very friendly from the beginning and desperate to come inside the house. The black and white one (who, it transpired, is Ginger’s brother) wasn’t quite so chummy and obviously had no intention of sticking around.
I phoned the RSPCA to see if anyone had reported a cat missing, but Ginger wasn’t listed so I was advised to leave it for a week to see if anyone claimed him. They also said they would chip him if the owners didn’t come forward.
I didn’t feed him and tried not to let him in the house, despite his cheeky determination, just in case he had a loving home elsewhere. But, despite my best efforts, he set up camp outside the house on the front lawn and refused to budge.
On the seventh day, as the whole family started to get excited at the prospect of officially owning a cat, there was a knock on the door. A lady on the doorstep said: ‘I think you have my cat!’
He and his brother apparently lived around the corner. We were desperately disappointed but, when we went to visit him later, his owner casually asked: ‘Do you want him?’
Naturally, we snapped him up. They’d called him Garfield but to us he will always be Ginger (he seems purrfectly happy with that).
He’s certainly spiced up our lives. Bizarrely, he used to be fascinated by our guinea pig and the two of them spent many an evening curled up together on the sofa. He is also the friendliest cat I know, loves company (does he think he’s a dog?) and loves being free to roam but never goes very far.
That doesn’t mean, however, that he’s forgotten all his old tricks. Our neighbours tell us he often rocks up at their house for a change of scene. He even joined a teenage party next door, hanging out on a sun lounger and listening to music.
Most mornings he accompanies our daughter and her friends down the road to school, stealthily walking a few paces behind them on garden walls. Without fail, he stops at the same garden and lets them go on their way.
Ginger can be grumpy if he doesn’t get his own way. He’s obsessed with my car, jumping in when I arrive home to have a good look around. We take him for a little drive sometimes and he loves looking out of the window.
When I’m at work, he’s keen to get involved, knocking pens on to the floor as if he’s swatting flies. I suspect he thinks this is helpful, but it’s really not. He also insists on marking all the equipment, which is a tad annoying when you’re trying to use the computer mouse. Eventually, however, he settles down and likes nothing more than to snuggle up in his radiator bed alongside my desk, warm as toast and purring along to Classic FM.
Sarah Seastron set up Clockwork HR in Skipton, North Yorkshire, ten years ago. For more information (and to see Ginger’s online biography in full), visit clockworkhr.co.uk.
