Ginger 

Another cat who came to live with us was unimaginatively, and for obvious reasons, named Ginger. We discovered later that he'd been one of a litter of kittens thrown from an upstairs window into the graveyard by a man in a flat across the road from my shop. Ginger and a grey kitten survived and lived in the car park behind the shop.

He became quite street-smart, eating discarded take-aways and in winter cold he would move to sit under the latest car to arrive - the warmest. When we discovered that he was left to fend for himself we fed him at the back door of the shop as he spent time in the garden there.

Initially a friendly soul he had become aggressive after being abused by some of the local children. I reported him to Cat's Protection who couldn't re-home him as he was aggressive but I had a friend, Joan Ross, who handed in food for him from C.P. and monitored his progress. Another interested friend, our old neighbour Mr McCallum, would visit to see him and bring him some food. The little grey cat made friends with a couple who came regularly to the car park and she went with them to a happy home at Finavon.

Over a few months the Fingerprint staff and I managed to gain Ginger's trust and he took to living in the back shop - we installed a cat-flap. He struggled to the back door one day having been struck by a car. The vet managed to save his leg and, although I hadn't brought him to Redhall before then, I discovered that he could now have protection against FLV with which some of our cats were infected, so after the appropriate inoculations he came to Redhall, settled very happily and lived out his days here.