Jinx Ragnar Trappistini La Bonche has been trained to do circus tricks and uses a first floor catflap
Meet Jinx Ragnar Trappistini La Bonche – the cat whose life is somehow as a-meow-zing and extraordinary as his name.
Jinx, as he is more conveniently known, lives at Circus Central, a circus school in Gosforth, Newcastle, which goes some way to explaining why he lives as he does.
The fluffy Norwegian Forest Cat doesn’t just know how to do flips and tricks and jump through hoops, he also has a very special cat flap – which is on the first floor of the building.
Because Jinx is just 18 months old, his big top owners didn’t want him to be out on busy roads at a young age, but also wanted to make sure he had an outdoor life.
So on a boring day off, they decided to buy some materials and build a series of ladders, which allows him to claw his way down from a first floor window into the garden and come back in through the downstairs cat flap.
“We wanted him to be safe but also have adventurous experiences,” said Helen Averley, the director of Circus Central, also known as Madame La Bonche.
“Jinx loves it. He can see over the hedge now and took to it straight away. He’s got a really adventurous and exciting life. Doing tricks and activities keeps cats’ brains active and he’s beautiful too. He’s got fluff between his toes and coming out of his ears!”
Jinx is the latest in a tradition of purrfect cats at the circus school. His predecessor, Tiggy the Remarkable Fugu Cat, might have had one of the strongest stomachs known to cat.
A dead, dried pufferfish brought back as a memento from a holiday clearly looked like a tasty snack to Tiggy. She gobbled it up like she was on catnip yet somehow survived, going on to live for three more years.
“She must be the only cat in the world who has eaten a fish that poisonous and survived!” said Helen. “Jinx is now carrying on the family tradition of having amazing cats.”