Editor's Note: The following text is from GlobalPost, which provides excellent coverage of world news – important, moving and just odd.
Fat Boy, a fat cat from the city of Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan, Canada, has become an unlikely local celebrity.
The "husky" cat weighs in at about 22 lbs, equivalent to a 350-pound person, and since the local animal shelter began chronicling Fat Boy's weight loss journey on Facebook, he has developed quite a following, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports.
Fat Boy is on a strict diet at 160 calories a day, and once a week on "Fat Boy Friday" — described as a a "wildly popular" event — he is weighed on a scale at the Moose Jaw Humane Society.
But he is a sneaky cat, the CBC says. Photos in the "Fat Boy is the Biggest Loser!" album on Facebook — a reference to the weight loss reality TV show — show the cat appearing to reach his paw into other cats' cages to steal their food.
"You don't really notice it until you look down and say, oh my gosh this [cat] is humongous," Karla Pratt from the Moose Jaw Humane Society told the CBC.
"Fat Boy has always had, I hate to use the word groupies but he's definitely got a fan following in the city of Moose Jaw. People will come just to see him, upset when he's outside or something. They'll ask where's the fat cat today," Pratt said.
The cat, who is a permanent resident at the animal shelter and not available for adoption, has even become the face of a fundraising campaign.
The shelter is selling "autographed" 5 x 7 prints with Fat Boy's photo and paw print on them to raise money for rescue efforts.
"If the diet goes as planned, his friends may have to call him something new. Perhaps, Fat Boy Slim," the CBC reporter quipped.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
Lol it says she works at the Human Society
What are you talking about? the article says local animal shelter and Moose Jaw Humane Society.
Check at 1:11
Yeah, I saw that too hilarious
(Sorry, couldn't find a way to post without hitting reply). I wish they would mention how difficult it is to put a cat on a diet. If they lose weight too quickly it can cause organ failure and death. The process can take 12-18 months; much slower than for a dog.
I have a cat like this one, but with more striking features!
Fat Boy is definitely obese, can hard walk, needs to be on a diet!
Are you saying it would look good with an apple in the mouth,ready to be BBQ`d ?
LOL...Funny because I have a cat that looks exactly like Fat Boy..She's 11 years old and weighs in at 23 pounds. Her name is Mitsou, she's a real talker too....Will talk your ears off for a treat but once she's had her way with you....Mum's the word...She goes right mack to sleep. LOL
@Rick: Someone in my family had a cat named Mitsou. She was not a fat cat, but my cat Minou was...I think she tipped the scale at 18 pounds. Her belly dragged on the floor...it was cute but not very practical for her. She lost the weight through dieting.
Americans, sorry for the bad news. British scientists confirmed by data that the fatties stay fatties for life. Now, let's dress modestly( it's really ugly and bad to viewers' brains when fatties show much skin), eat right amount and move as much as we can. Let's not think about obesity much and give most of our income to charities, the Christian ones. Selfish prosperity has been a woe.
What does this have to do with cats?
hahaha i have a cat that is 25 pounds lol his name is pounce lol
Yes & I bet he can't pounce lol. He just blobs lol.
Poor little kitty. Cats have no way to exercise like dogs, so owners have to make sure they don't overfeed their cats. Absolutely no treats either. The owners are absolutely to blame for his condition - now it is up to THEM to take the necessary remedies, and not use other peoples' charity pay for their stupidity.
I don't know about cats not having the ability to exercise like a dog. My four are in constant motion. If anything, even so much as a dust bunny moves, one of my cats is on it. They're all very active, very playful and a hoot to watch. We don't dare give them catnip, or the house would be in shambles. Right now I've got a paw swatting at the curser as it moves across the screen.
I have an orange and white male cat that weighs between 16 – 18 lbs. He is a big boy but doesn't appear as huge as this cat. He is also longer so the weight is a little more distributed. I agree that cats don't normally get that large for no reason. It appears that he has been overfed. The article doesn't go into detail about why he is at an animal shelter. I hope the diet works for him but the shelter's staff are going to have to watch out for him and make sure he doesn't steal any more food.
I wanna rub that big belly.
What a sweet boy! I have a stray who adopted me and he will clean out everyone else's bowl. It's called the "alley cat" mentality since he doesn't know where his next meal will come from. He was extremely skinny when he showed up on my doorstep but is now a very "healthy" weight. It's not always the owners fault, sometimes it's the background of where the cat came from.
He's adorable and has a larger than life personality, too. I hope his dieting days go well.
Meow..... (burp)....
Several years ago my husband brought home a small wet ball of gray fur that he found along the highway on his way home from work, that we named Sparky. The poor little guy looked more like a drowned rat then a kitten of about six weeks of age. Sparky grew up to become a twenty three pound kitty. He wasn't fat or even overweight, just big. As in so big that when standing on all fours, his head was at my knee. Our vet was amazed and said Sparky, was the largest domestic cat that he had ever seen. Sparky was our footwarmer in bed for almost sixteen years before he passed away in his sleep.
I have a similar kitty, a couple years ago I heard this cat yowling outside our apartment and stepped outside to find a little gray kitten probably 6-7 weeks old. Went back in and told my wife about it and she wanted to go out and see him, as we opened the door he invited himself in and never left. That little kitten turned out to be a norwegian forest cat cross and hes now 22 lbs and is very active and not fat at all.
Go, Fat Boy! Time to get in shape! He sure didn't like that paint/ink? put on his paw for the autographs.
Hey guys, will you visit ..... Help Faye . ORG ....... a friend of mine is Fighting for her life.... Thanks
Crazy Canadians....
Correction, crazy Canadian cat. Only taking after our neighbors to the south
Actually a pretty smart joke at the end... fatboy slim... good reference
IS it a bad thing that this boy doesn't look big at ALL to me...? My Casey is 24lbs – uh oh...
My Blue Point Siamese was 19 pounds. He wasn't fat at all. He was just monstrous in his bone structure. Blue Points are pretty much the largest of all Siamese cats.
My Maurice is 32lbs. He is overweight but not that much. He's very tall and long, he looks like a mini white bison. His mom was also very big. Genetics!
Does no one get that letting a cat get this fat is abuse? I'm tired of seeing cats and dogs that are so fat they are in crisis. These animals don't feed themselves. Be a responsible pet owner.
wait, this is journalism?
thanks for being on top of it, cnn.
I would suggest that Fat Boy be put on a strictly catnip vegetarian diet and be restricted to limited catnaps.
Hope I don't seem too catty.
This guy needs a reduced-calorie cat food. I hope since this article came out he lost weight. How about an update on him? If he were mine I’d get him some low-cal food like Natural Balance Ultra. It worked for my cat.