Being staff for a cat of 19 years, has taught me to appreciate their strong sense of right and wrong. They know when breakfast is. If I try to sleep a few more moments, Ninja will leap up on the dresser. Soon things start to crash down. He is trying to get my attention. As soon as I tell him I will get up, he stops. He understands English. He also cares for our other cat. One afternoon, I told him I would feed them when I returned from the bank. I had to go before it closed.

My wife told me when my car returned to the house, Ninja ran into the back bedroom, where she and the other cat were. Ninja said something in cat, and both cats dashed out together to meet me at the front door.

Ninja is named in part for a pattern of hiding, if we said anything about going to the vet. We learned we had to spell certain words if he was in the vicinity. Or he would hide, and vanish like a ninja.