Making of "Allergies" (Patreon)

I shared a shortened version of this story when I posted the comic, but here's the whole journey! (It's long, but there will be cat pictures!)

When I was 5 I accidentally squashed my hamster and my Mum decided we needed a pet that could run away from me... 😅 We got a cat, who I named Flower, because she liked rolling in the flowerbeds, but then I grew up a little and decided that was a dumb name, so we just all called her "The Cat". (Peak Englishness!) I didn't realize I was allergic to her until I came back home from uni and got all snuffily. Not ideal.

Roll on to my 20s and I met J and he didn't really like cats (and was also allergic), so we got a couple of Chihuahuas instead. Honestly we were a bit allergic to them too, but not as bad as with cats! I made peace with the fact I'd never be able to own a cat and settled into my new life as a "Dog Person" -with even more dogs!

Fast forward to 2022 and something snapped. I became CAT OBESSED! I wanted (no... NEEDED!) those purrs and kitty cuddles! I spent all summer researching if there was some way to do it and discovered Devon Rexes! This breed doesn't grow the guard hairs that most cats do. Less fur = less hairs = less allergy vehicles = way better for sufferers!

I started following a local Devon Rex breeder that posts on Instagram and watched a litter grow from newborns to kittens. I'd always loved Siamese cats and there was a boy in the litter with those markings. When she made them available for adoption, I raced to send in my request! She immediately replied! ....He'd been promised to another.... 😭

I was gutted. He felt so much like MY dude! Then the craziness of the Christmas holidays hit and I got busy with finding presents and hiding elves. On the big day, still full from Christmas dinner, I checked my email... it was a Christmas Miracle! The family he was promised to had fallen through, and "was I still interested in him?" YES! He was my boy all along!!! 🥰

We named him Fiasco and he was the best cat you could ever hope for. Such a sweet boy, who loved to ride on my shoulders!

But you see, dear reader, he was TOO GOOD! J, who had thus far never met a cat he liked, fell in love and wanted a cat too! Que our second Devon Rex -Finito!

Now Fini was from a different breeder from Fiasco and had a very different temperament -way more interested in his big brother than us!

Of course they were still wonderful, and we were happy they loved each other so much, but we couldn't help feeling like we'd bought a cat for our cat, instead of for J! 😅

About 2yrs later, I'm still following Fiasco's breeder's Instagram and she has a new litter available. She always puts personality descriptions along with each kitten and there was one that sounded so special. I msged her to ask if he was related to Fiasco and it turns out he was his nephew! Now, it's normally me who puts the breaks on J's crazy impulsive ideas, so he didn't really stand a chance when I suggested we roll the dice again on getting him a cat!

Along came Frankenstein (because we wanted to keep the F names going and he looks like he's made up of lots of different cats stuck together!)

Oh! I was supposed to be talking about the comic, wasn't I? 😅

So, they might have been Devons, but with 3, it was definitely stretching the "hypoallergenic" label! We had them on Purina LiveClear kibble, which did a good job of reducing allergens, but after a couple of years Fiasco started randomly throwing up. I didn't suspect the food at first because he'd been on it for so long, but we stopped the kibble and no more vomit! I ordered the Catigy allergen preventing food topper to try on different food instead, but after his first dose he VIOLENTLY threw up! That concluded it! Fiasco was allergic to egg -the very thing the allergen eliminating powders were made of! 😭

We stopped it cold and although I was very happy not to be cleaning up cat sick every day, our allergies were coming back BAD!

My last chance was Pacagen, the more expensive option of the 3, but egg free! It worked, but with 3 cats the price tag adds up, so I emailed to ask if they'd do us a deal on a 3 cat subscription. It was a long shot, so I was surprised when they wrote back saying they would!

The company had been so approachable, and I knew it worked, so it got me wondering if might be able to go full "influencer" and score some free product in return for a comic. I'd never done anything like that before, so for ages it was just a silly idea, but every time I put the powder on my cats' food I kept thinking about it. One day I finally plucked up the courage to email them, fully expecting them to decline, but they said YES!

So there we go! That is my journey of my cats and allergies! Oh! And it turned out that Frankenstein didn't take after his Uncle Fiasco as much as we'd hoped he would, but he's definitely J's cat -albeit a bit of an odd one! Of course, as soon as we got Frankie, Fini decided that humans are pretty cool after all and became a lot sweeter, but 11yo claimed him as his own -so everyone ended up with a cat that wanted one! 9yo is more a dog person, which is ironic because he's the only one out of the 4 of us who ISN'T allergic to cats!