Colossal Cats
A fat cat, according to the dictionary, is a wealthy, influential and privileged being.
Take a look at this collection of fat cats, nominated by their owners, and you’ll see how this term came to mean anyone rich, smug and deep-down happy.
Have you ever seen such a contented collection of cats? These are not your basic alley cats, scrounging through scrap heaps, hoping to find an abandoned fish head. No, these are cats who nap on window seats, yawn luxuriously, rouse themselves long enough to find the cat dish, and then go searching for a comfortable lap, where they can purr themselves back to sleep.
We received 23 fat cat nominations. The only thing these cats have in common is that all of them look astoundingly happy.
A cat doesn’t have to be fat to be a fat cat. Some of these fat cats barely reach the double-digits in poundage. But take one look at them, lying on their backs, legs splayed, denting the sofa, and you know they fit one dictionary definition of a fat cat: “Someone who has become lazy or self-satisfied as the result of privilege or advantage.”
Some of these cats make it well into the over-20-pound range, including a certain Buckwheat, a 27-pound heavyweight belonging to Diane Gronning of Spokane. None of the other nominated cats beat Buckwheat in sheer avoirdupois.
Putter, pictured prominently here, comes in a close second at about 24 pounds.
“He’s the most lovable cat around, and it doesn’t matter whether he knows you or not,” said owner Curly Rousseau, who runs a property management agency from his home. “He’s the official greeter at our office.”
Nancy Behne of Hartline didn’t divulge the weight of her Kiki, but she did provide this vivid description: “She looks like a filled tick.”
Most of these cats seem to take after the most famous fat cat in America, Garfield the Cat. Garfield is self-confident, relaxed and completely at peace with his wide-load body image. Garfield loves lasagna, a craving shared by some of our nominated cats. However, Nick, a 22-pounder owned by Tara Ashley of Spokane, has a more unusual craving.
“One of his favorite foods is Doritos,” said Tara.
Some of the owners have, of course, tried to put their cats on diets. Yet the results have been mixed. A certain Scooter was a recliner-filling 17 pounds when owner Ardi Stanhope put him on a diet. Now, after almost a year of diet food, Scooter weighs in at 19 1/2 pounds.
Candy Allen of Athol, Idaho, is convinced that her Skeeter has an eating disorder which causes her to “eat the food real fast, then she runs to eat the food of the other two cats.”
“If she were human, I would send her to a shrink, but since she is a cat, she will eat till she bursts,” she wrote.
Now, we must in good conscience point out fat is not really a good thing for cats.
Dr. Cindy Thomas, a Spokane veterinarian, said that too much weight creates a great deal of stress on a cat’s skeletal system and muscles.
“Fat cats are more likely to rupture a ligament in their knee, for instance, just by jumping off a bed wrong,” said Thomas.
Fat cats are also more prone to problems such as pancreatitis. (However, extra weight does not seem to cause more heart problems, as it does in humans).
Thomas said she usually recommends that fat cats go on some kind of diet. Most cats are “free-fed,” like guests on a cruise ship, with an ever-replenished food dish.
Simply rationing out the food every day can serve as a diet. Or, an owner can give the cat a “lite” cat food, with fewer calories. It didn’t work for Scooter, but it should work for most cats.
Meanwhile, we can still celebrate our fat cats without necessarily condoning their extravagant kitty lifestyles.
Besides, by some standards, these cats aren’t that huge.
Buckwheat has a long way to go before he tops an Australian house cat named Himmy.
Himmy made it into the Guinness Book of World Records by waddling in at 46 pounds, 15-1/4 ounces.
Think about it: A cat that weighs as much as an average first-grader.
Now, that’s a whole lot of kitty.
Many thanks to all the readers who sent in photos.