Ginger Maltese-Heeler

* Kid
* Adult

Ginger is a secondary character in the fanmade spinoff series, ***And Bluey!***. She is the adoptive daughter of Bingo and Lila, sister of Cirrus, granddaughter of Chili and Bandit, niece of Bluey and Mackenzie, and cousin of Boots and Creek.

## **Appearance**

Ginger has a white coat with orange splotches on it. She's very tall for her age and people often think she's a couple years older than she actually is. Most of the left side of Ginger's body has unfortunately been badly burned. She has become blind in her left eye, partially deaf, and is missing her entire left arm.

## **Personality**

Ginger is very reserved and gentle. She prefers to keep to herself and doesn't like any sort of attention on her, positive or negative. Ginger especially hates when she catches people starting at her scars, feeling very self-conscious and insecure. She does, however, eventually grow out of this and learns how to process and deal with her trauma.

Ginger is very stubborn and will go to extreme lengths to prove that she can still do things on her own without anyone's help. She constantly feels like everyone treats her differently, as if she's suddenly incapable of caring for herself.

## Backstory

Ginger was born to an average family in the suburbs; she had a mum, a dad, and a little brother. The first 5 years of her life went as expected and she was happy with her family and loved her little brother very much. Everything was going just fine, until one dreadful night.

Long after the family had gone to sleep, a fire had started due to faulty wiring in the electrical system. It began downstairs in the living room and very quickly spread around the house, the smell of smoke traveling up to the parents' room. Instantly going into protection mode, Ginger's parents went to grab her and her brother, preparing to run downstairs. By this time, the fire had started crawling up the stairs and was blocking their only exit. Having no choice, Ginger ran through the fiery staircase, badly burning the left side of her body. Before she could turn around and call out for her family, she heard a loud crack and looked on in horror as part of the roof began to cave in. Ginger quickly ran out the door, collapsing into a nearby patch of grass as the fire ate away at her home. By this time, the fire department and some ambulances had began to arrive, a medic carefully picked Ginger up, who had since passed out from the pain and smoke inhalation.

When Ginger woke up a few days later, she felt a bandage covering her face and ear. More alarmingly, she noticed that she couldn't feel her left arm...wait, where did her arm go?! Doctors carefully explained to Ginger that she'd lost her eyesight, hearing, and arm in the house fire. She then asked about her family, only to learn that none of them survived. Ginger barely has time to process her trauma, because she's whisked off to a local orphanage. Her time here wasn't exactly the best, not because she was treated poorly, but because she wasn't in any position to interact with any of the other kids or visiting parents. Ginger would sit in the corner and play with her beloved bird plush, the only thing she has left of her old life.

It isn't until one lucky day, when a Cattle Dog and Maltese couple come in to the orphanage in search of another child to adopt. They have a little white puppy with them, who seemed to really like talking about and playing with dinosaurs. Much to her primary annoyance, he bounds over to Ginger and forces her to play dinosaurs with him. He doesn't even give her the cool flying one! Ginger becomes grumpy and at first refuses to entertain this weird, bandana-wearing toddler's game, turning around and playing with her own toy by herself. The white pup, who she later learns is named Cirrus, excitedly starts rambling that birds are descendants of dinosaurs. Ginger doesn't believe him at first, but is proven wrong by a picture book Cirrus has in his backpack. She notices a highly-detailed drawing of a pterodactyl fall out of the book and remarks how cool it is, which prompts Cirrus to call over his mum, the Cattle Dog that she'd seen walk in earlier. The woman introduces herself as Bingo, and offers to draw some more for the kids. Ginger closes up and becomes shy, but nods and watches as Bingo draws Ginger's bird plush. Bingo gives the drawing to Ginger, gathering up Cirrus and his toys because their appointment had ended. There was a part of Ginger that wished the family could stay. Something about them reminded her of the family she'd lost. She guessed it wasn't meant to be and assumed they wouldn't be coming back.

However, much to Ginger's delight, the Heelers do return a couple of weeks later with their arms full of art supplies and dinosaur toys. This time around, Ginger gets to meet Lila, Bingo's wife and Cirrus' other mum and becomes immediately attached, feeling comfortable and safe with her. The family spends a couple of hours with Ginger, and this becomes a monthly occurrance until the mums decide to speak with their assigned social worker. They've fallen in love with the little hound and are interested in taking the next steps towards adoption. It's a lengthy process, but 2 years after they first met, Ginger gets to go home with Bingo, Lila, and Cirrus, happy to have a family once more.

## Gallery

Edit of Ginger with her friends, cousins, and brother.Art trade with @ashbit.png on Instagram of Ginger at the beach with her family.Illstrated domestic scene of Chapter One of Phoenix.

## **Trivia**

### **Other**

* Bingo and Lila notice that Ginger is understandably skittish around fires, regardless of how large they are. When the family goes camping with Bluey's family, they make sure to take caution to not make the campfire too big and will put it out if they see Ginger is stressed out