Desislava Dobreva and her cat Sushi, whom she adopted from Bulgaria (Picture: Desislava Dobreva)
‘Does anyone have a cat with special needs up for adoption?’
I posted this on a Facebook group in 2020, looking for a second cat to adopt. I had brought Lucifurr home in 2018 and I was looking for a friend for him – he was getting lonely.
Immediately, I got bombarded with photos but one photo stuck with me and as soon as I saw her, I knew that this one-eared cat, Sushi, would join our family.
She had spent four months in a foster home because everyone thought she was ugly. To me, she was perfect.
But things were complicated. I was on vacation in Bulgaria, in the same town Sushi was born, and had to get back to the UK in a few days.
I didn’t realise at the time, but this cat would cost me over £10,000.
Back then, I lived in Edinburgh, while running my global education company helping entrepreneurs start and grow businesses though a membership programme called the Badass Brand Squad.
Because of this, one of my missions in life has always been to help those who can’t advocate for themselves – animals. I’ve worked with organisations including Let’s Adopt Bulgaria Respect, Animals in Bulgaria and Adopt Meow in Thailand, all to save and rehome cats over the last 15 years.
In 2023, for example, I arranged transportation and adoption into the UK for a cat called Hope, and her two babies, who survived severe burn wounds.
Lucifurr was adopted in 2018 from a shelter in Thailand while I was living there, during my time as a digital nomad. Nobody wanted him because they believed black cats bring bad luck, but I knew I loved him.
Desislava’s cats, Lucifurr (left) and Sushi (Picture: Desislava Dobreva)
So, when I went to Bulgaria for a vacation in 2020, I started looking for a sister for Lucifurr. I wanted a special cat like him.
Then, when I came across Sushi, I wanted to learn more about her.
I learned that a taxi driver found her – she was dying on the street in a pool of her own blood, with her ear chopped off and a huge gash on her back. Sushi was likely thrown out along with other newborn cat babies when she was a few days old.
Luckily, the taxi driver did what I feel like nobody else would do, and immediately brought her to a vet clinic.
They proceeded to sew her up and hoped she would make it. She spent three days in a coma, and the moment she woke up she started purring and playing.
I fell in love with Sushi the moment I saw her little face (Picture: Desislava Dobreva)
She ended up in a foster home, where I found her four months later.
Everyone warned me that she was a very playful, crazy cat full of energy but I didn’t care.
I fell in love with Sushi the moment I saw her little face – I never questioned whether adopting her was the right thing to do.
Owning a successful business means I had the ability to make sure Sushi had the best life.
But first, I had to get her home.
I knew the UK didn’t allow cats in the passenger cabin for any flights in and out of the UK. Usually, pets have to be put in the baggage hold, but I wasn’t having that because it can be unsafe for cats to be in there.
Two years prior, I’d brought Lucifurr from Thailand into the UK, so I knew there was a way I could bring Sushi to the UK in the safest possible way for her – by plane to Belgium then in the car through the Eurotunnel to England.
Sushi settled in quite quickly, even though it took Lucifurr a few weeks to fully accept her (Picture: Desislava Dobreva)
My cats are really spoiled and only fly business class, so I booked a flight for me and Sushi and we flew together to Brussels. She was an angel during the flight, and slept throughout in the seat next to me.
My partner picked us up from Brussels and drove us all the way to Edinburgh. Sushi had her own pet passport and all her vaccinations and documents, which were thoroughly checked at the Eurotunnel.
We had to immediately get her into a surgery, which cost me £800 – where they opened her head and rebuilt her ear canal to make sure she could hear, as she only has one ear. Thankfully, the surgery was a success.
And soon, she was running around and playing with everything in sight, like the little warrior she is.
She settled in quite quickly, even though it took Lucifurr a few weeks to fully accept her – he had to assert his dominance first.
People think I’m crazy because people spend less than £10,000 on fancy breeds, not cats like Sushi (Picture: Desislava Dobreva)
But she’s also been through ultrasounds, multiple vet checks, eats specialised foods and supplements, and I even pay a cat behaviour and nutrition expert every month to make sure she is doing the best she can.
Her blood and urine tests every six months cost about £350 and her food and supplements are a few hundred per month as well.
As promised by her foster mom, Sushi is indeed pretty crazy.
She’s now four years old, and regularly falls asleep on the table and almost always falls down in her sleep. She play-fights with Lucifurr every day. She always has to be next to me and sleeps on top of my head every night while Lucifurr sleeps on my legs. It’s not the comfiest but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
People think I’m crazy because people spend less than £10,000 on fancy breeds, not cats like Sushi. I do a lot of work with saving and rehoming animals and I’m a huge advocate for ‘adopt don’t shop’, so their opinions don’t bother me.
Across the world, the stray and feral cat population is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions right now.
Sushi is truly a once-in-a-lifetime cat (Picture: Desislava Dobreva)
Bulgaria is one of the countries that struggles with this and so I do whatever I can to help raise money and donate to organisations in Bulgaria while cultivating a network of people across the world that I can tap into for adoptions.
Even in my business, all of my clients know Sushi’s story and we have a hashtag we use – #BeLikeSushi because we all see her as an inspiration due to her attitude to life.
Everyone sees her as a warrior and a soul that just wants to enjoy life. Because of my social media platform thousands of people know her story and are inspired by it – they ask me about her all the time and demand photos of both her and Lucifurr.
Sushi is truly a once-in-a-lifetime cat.
She’s the most lovable, energetic creature I’ve ever met and the way she’s embraced life after almost dying (in fact they said she did die for a few minutes) has inspired thousands of people around the world.
I truly believe I was meant to meet her so I can help share her message: sometimes the most imperfect things are the most beautiful ones.
Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if everyone had the same warrior mindset as Sushi.
Sushi’s been with us more than four years now – and I realised she’s both the sweetest and the most expensive cat I’ve ever taken care of, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk.
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