Lewis's FuGLy FriENds: Every Starfish counts

I speak with the creator of an adorable dog toy range about the inspiration for these products and in the process find a complex web of interconnected values and truths.

A brief history of the creator

It’s a rainy and grey Monday morning in Cape Town; the kind that requires most logical people to be in bed with a warm beverage. 

I have been given a 30 minute window to chat with a lady whose Monday mornings are her busiest. No pressure there but our conversation ends up costing her an hour and fifteen minutes of her precious time and I am so grateful it did.

Sophia Wener was born on a farm in Bloemfontein. Gifted with creativity she aimed for a career in professional photography. After completing her degree she left family and farm for the bright lights of Cape Town and, not finding work in her chosen field, got a job as an art dealer.  

She left Cape Town briefly to work in the tourism industry at Sun City in the  NorthWest Province. Sophia describes the ten year period after that as “a time that robbed me of myself and all of my creativity.” I realise that they were dark days and leave sleeping dogs to lie. But the saying about the darkest hour being before the dawn holds true. After emerging from that difficult phase, she sought a retreat which turned out to be life-changing. And in an attempt to rediscover herself—and her ideals—from scratch Sophia learned about her value and what it means to be human on this planet.

“You have to pay rent to be here.” Sophia explains. She believes that we are all renting space on this earth and must contribute for our time here. Giving back does not always take the form of money but it is always possible to make a difference to human, plant and animal if you have compassion. Sophia has always been driven by creativity, not money. She believes in providing a voice for the voiceless and a leg-up for those who may just need some help to get back on or find their way — a hand up and not a hand-out. Having lived her life around Staffordshire terriers she is an avid supporter of animal welfare organsations—a very important aspect of her ‘rental’ agreement on this planet.

She met her current partner in Hout Bay and they lived there until the fires of 2017/2018  led to some disturbing rioting.  Her husband sources and develops textiles for the furniture industry and, as his clients were mostly in the Northern suburbs, they moved there in 2019.

Covid changed us all

Sophia is a rare breed of human. She has an incredible gift for creating as well as succeeding as an entrepreneur.

When Covid hit, Sophia was immediately struck by how many welfare organisations and small businesses fell into dire straits. Adept at turning her hand to most crafts and having fantastic contacts in the textile industry, Sophia alongside her family and friends plus some small business partners were rapidly producing embroidered, filtered, elasticated masks and bottles of hand sanitiser. Her financial success supported individuals and organisations that would otherwise have been destitute during Covid.

A close friend of Sophia’s, Ali runs a dog parlour and lodging in Hout Bay. She was struggling during Covid and Sophia knew she had to help. She made all sorts of beautiful things from candles and frames to dog coats and cushions for Ali’s little shed-shop. She also made a coat for Ali’s rescued Pitbull cross, Lewis, who loved to be outside in any weather. She delivered Lewis’s coat to him on a rainy day when, lying on the grass with gums grey from cancer, he finally crossed over. Ali was broken. Only a few days before, they had been discussing making dog toys for the shop. Sophia says, “I took all my lappies with the idea of making something for Ali to hold onto.” It wasn’t pretty or sentimental, it was the embodiment of Sophia’s love for Ali and Lewis together. It was the understanding that the action heals more than the object.  Ali took one look at it and said, “This is f*cking ugly!  It’s absolutely adorable but fugly as heck!” Both of their minds merged and Lewis’s FuGLy FriENds were born.

“Life is like a FuGLy toy”, Sophia says, “Sometimes not pretty; it can be tough and resilient, or not,  depending on how hard it gets chewed. It can’t really be ordered to fit our needs, it comes to us from the resources we have. It can be bright or dark but it is something to hold onto when we are down.

Use the resources you have

Sophia runs a small quantity fabric printing business from home too. She admits to suffering from insomnia (with everything that she does, I can’t understand why) but between the toys, dog coats, beds and scatter cushions she has her life and work in one beautiful space at home. She employs two seamstresses permanently and another creator to make the dog pulls. Sophia’s rental agreement has a clause about stepping lightly on the planet and so the waste from the textile industry has allowed her to utilise a resource that would otherwise have gone to landfill.

Every third (or even second) FuGLy toy sale goes directly to welfare. Sophia has been able to finance blankets and food for many animal welfare organisations in the Cape.  Recently, she was able to dispatch toys and dog beds to an organisation in Romania for the dogs left behind in the Ukraine War.

An holistic approach

Sophia has spun a web of interconnected energies, using the excesses and waste from one operation to fuel another and give back to so many. Our conversation has taken many twists and turns and I have enjoyed hearing that her approach to life is very similar to my own. She writes to me later and says,  “Finding one's purpose in life is never easy or I think most of the time we are too blind to actually see it. I do believe I have only uncovered some of my purpose or perhaps, I am not quite ready to SEE the rest, due to current commitments.”

As despondent as we get when faced with the ills of the world, a healing remedy is to know and acknowledge that there are people like Sophia who carry hope and love wherever they can.

©Liz Roodt 2024