Lamorne Morris does a good job of giving the impression that he loves being around his Exotic Shorthair pet cat, Ferguson, in the sitcom “New Girl” in which he plays Winston Bishop. Ferguson is a brown tabby-and-white Exotic (as the cat fancy like to call this cat) and also an actor. I mean he is trained.
As mentioned, Morris plays the character Winston who is known for having a cat, Ferguson. The problem, it seems, is that fans of the sitcom love Ferguson but Morris doesn’t 😊. But he has to work with Ferguson because he’s in the script. It does not surprise me that Ferguson is popular with ‘New Girl’ fans because the Exotic is in the top three most popular purebred cats in America as per the CFA. It’s in the face; they have this round, baby-like face which appeals to a lot of cat lovers. And their bodies are described as “cobby”. This means rounded and substantial. The opposite to slender and elongated (see cat body types).
News media states that Winston Bishop constantly cares for Ferguson in the show but it hasn’t been easy for actor Lamorne Morris.
Ferguson was introduced to the show during season three when Winston steals Ferguson from his cheating girlfriend, Daisy. Fellow actors Hannah Simone and Zooey Deschanel discussed with Morris the unfortunate situation in which he finds himself, in that he is allergic to cats but he has to play a loving cat owner. It is Morris who ended up with the pet despite the fact that the other two actors love cats and it seems that Morris is ambivalent at best.
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Regarding the above link; Purina make a food which I believe is pretty effective in suppressing the allergen, Fel D1, in cats, in their saliva, which causes the allergic reaction in 10% of the human population. I wonder if the producers are feeding this dry cat food to Ferguson? If not, they should be. I would recommend it.
It seems that fellow actors are helping out Morris to deal with his cat allergy. On one occasion Simone convinced the producers to let her hold the cat in her role as Cece to take some of the difficulty away from Morris. However, they said that Ferguson is trained and only Lamorne can hold Ferguson. This implies that Ferguson is trained to accept the actor Lamorne Morris and nobody else. That’s a possibility because cats become familiar with an individual person and I guess even trained and experienced cats can be more relaxed with one individual than with any individual.
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Morris said that he is trying to be kind to Ferguson. He also takes his medication (antihistamines, I guess) to prevent sneezing all over him. On one occasion Ferguson scratched him. He thought that that was a moment when ‘the problem’ had to be sorted out. And perhaps predictably Morris said that working with Ferguson improved over time. This is because they’ve become familiar with each other and have learned to interact with each other in a more relaxed and confident way. Morris might also become less allergic as his immune system adjusts.