Toto The Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape by Dermot O’Leary and Samantha Lane is coming to the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford from August 20 to 23.

When Dermot adopted Toto and Silver, two wriggling little kittens from Italy, he began to imagine their adventures: solving crimes, making friends and getting into all sorts of sticky situations.

These daydreamings led to a best-selling children’s novel, Toto the Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape, which immediately captured the imaginations of children and their parents.

Now Toto’s story has been adapted into a big-hearted play with a menagerie of animal puppets, including cats, rats and a king cobra almost as large as the entire stage.

“We were going to get a dog,” O’Leary admits. But Plaxy, the local cat who wandered around the olive groves in Italy, where O’Leary and his wife Dee spend much of their time, had other ideas.

One night, when O’Leary was back in London for work, Dee video-called him to say Plaxy was having kittens in her pillowcase. “She stayed up all night and helped deliver Silver and Toto,” O’Leary recalls. “They’ve been with us ever since.”

The idea for writing about Toto happened almost by accident. When O’Leary brought the cats home, it quickly became apparent - from the amount of time Toto spent bumping into things - that she was blind.

But the vet explained that cats can compensate for lack of sight with other senses, so Toto is able to use her sharp hearing and clever whiskers to navigate the world.

“She had these incredible reactions,” O’Leary remembers. “We started calling her the little ninja and that’s where the original idea came from. I thought, what if she was actually a member of an ancient order of international ninjas?”

In the story, Toto uses her ninja powers to protect, fight and gain respect from unexpected members of the animal kingdom, often ones that are significantly larger, stronger and slightly more ferocious-looking than she is.

“It’s a story of two cats facing the world together with courage and humour,” says Samantha Lane, who co-adapted and directs the play that features original music from co-adaptor Barb Jungr.

“Toto’s blindness is never a limitation,” Lane adds. “It’s simply part of who she is. She’s resourceful and capable, and I think that sends a powerful message to children about possibility and self-belief. And Silver, right by her side, is always her biggest cheerleader.”

O’Leary hopes his story on stage provides a joyful, silly, entertaining time for families. “It’s a universal message of not giving up,” he says. “Of friendship and respect and not judging a book by its cover.” This is a message he reckons the real Toto would approve of. “Toto loves people,” he says. “She’s very gentle and when my son Kasper cries she’s always the first one there. So yes, I think she’d like it.”

For tickets, priced from £20 (children and concessions from £16), call 01483 440000 or visit www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk

By Kate Wyver