Cool cat

Lola the cat loves attention. “That’s why she’s called Lola,” says hospitality consultant Travis Drummond (22). “You know that line from the Barry Manilow song? Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl.” Travis and his girlfriend, photographer and videographer Meaghan Coolen (21), live in the city centre. They don’t have a garden, so whenever they go out, Lola comes along in a pink harness. That way she still gets some exercise and fresh air. Sometimes she’ll sit neatly on a bar stool. She’s been taught not to jump on tables and politely keeps her paws away from the food. At the tapas bar they often visit, she even gets her own little bowl of sardines.

Travis is from New Zealand, Meaghan from Geleen. They adopted Lola from an animal shelter. “We really wanted to adopt a cat,” Meaghan says. “It’s a way of giving an animal a second chance.”

Lola and her brother were found in a rubbish bin, dumped when they were still so small they could fit in the palm of a hand. “We adopted her when she was 3 months old,” Travis says. “We clicked straight away – she started playing and cuddling as soon as we saw her. She came to us vaccinated, microchipped, flea-treated and neutered, which was great. At the shelter they’d called her Boober, after a character from the children’s TV series Fraggle Rock. When they heard her new name was Lola, they said it suits her perfectly. She really is a showgirl.”