Savvy Pets, 1/15/21: Gus, Lully and Fezziwig – Awww, gorgeous fluffballs!

Please meet Siofra, a lovely T1D college student from Ireland … and astounding cats, Lully and Fezzywig. You will just love this!!!

I’m from Ireland, and was diagnosed in 2010 with Type 1 diabetes. I’m the only person in my family (and out of anyone I know) with T1D. Here’s a bit about my life with my exotic shorthair cats!!!

We adopted our first exotic shorthair cat soon after I was diagnosed with T1d in 2010, as a companion for me. I was often off school sick so Augustus (Gus for short) was great company. He was HUGE! Photos do not do him justice. But he was a gentle giant and a massive softie. Sadly he passed away in 2017. Soon after, we adopted another 2 exotic shorthairs, Lully and Fezziwig.

It’s lovely to have the company around again, our house was so quiet when Gus died. Lully is my favourite, and I’m one of the few whom she puts up within the house. Mostly she just sleeps, but she’s a great comfort when you’re having a bad hypoglycemic episode and she sits up beside you. We jokingly call her ‘Nurse Lully’ because she loves to be around when you’re sick, or I’m changing out my pump site! Fezziwig is a character. He’s a total Garfield, loves food and not much going on in his little head! He makes everyone laugh and loves to be around people, he’s incredibly clingy.

Cats get a bad rap, but they really are great pets. Once you get to know them, they’re very loyal and are a great comfort when you’re not feeling well. Adopting Gus when I was first diagnosed was a great decision. You’d be surprised how just having a presence in the room can be really comforting.

The names have a bit of a story. So, all our cats have been exotic shorthairs, and pedigrees(show cats). Usually, show cats have some pretty funky names, a ‘show’ name and an ‘at home’ name. So Gus’ full name was Augustus Fergus. I was reading a book at the time which had a “talking” white exotic shorthair called Augustus, hence the name! Fergus is shortened from Carrickfergus, where Gus was born.

Lully’s full name is ‘My Lagan Love’, which is named after the Irish folk song of the same name (listen to it, it’s beautiful!) Lully is just a made up name, but we call her Lully-bug sometimes too

Fezzywig/Fezzy is funny. He is named ‘Apple of my Eye’, but his at-home name comes from A Christmas Carol because we got him around Christmas time. Fezziwig was Scrooge’s first employer in the book. We originally called him Robin, but he was a bit too ugly for that, so he got changed to Fezziwig. He acts like a small dog, so it suits his quirky personality!