This video was posted July 30 and already has over half a million hits. All it shows is a fat cat squeezing, with great difficulty, through a cat door (“cat flap” in the UK).
Nevertheless, according to the Independent it’s gone viral on the Internet:
Cat owner Linda Joiner posted a video of her ginger moggie, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the lasagna-loving fictional cat Garfield, almost getting jammed in a small flap built into the door for her tiny dog. Getting stuck half way through his endeavour the unfortunate chubby kitty is seen making sad mews as he tries to squeeze his fulsome body through the opening.
It’s a paw performance.
Rumours that the now famous kitty, who weighs 26lbs, is on the ‘Catkins Diet’ remain unconfirmed.
A recent survey has suggested that out of the eight million pet cats in the UK, one in four are now obese. If the current trend continues half of all British cats could be too large to fit through standard cat flaps by 2020.
The solution (which is mine): build bigger flaps, and I suggest “The Flap+: A Dignified Entrance for the Portly Moggie.”
Of course a better solution is diets. None of my cats have ever been fat, but I hear it’s difficult to get them to lose weight. It always distresses me to see an obese felid, as they become indolent and their lives are shortened. And it’s pathetic to see this guy meow as he tries to come in. 26 pounds is more than twice the weight of an average-sized male cat.
h/t: Karel
I gave an empathetic “Oh!” each time I watched it. 🙁
“Rumours that the now famous kitty, who weighs 26lbs, is on the ‘Catkins Diet’ remain unconfirmed.”
The “Catkins Diet” is the only diet a cat should ever be on. They certainly don’t need corn and wheat in their food, but that’s what’s in some commercial preparations.
Agreed. Raw food is ideal, and there are at least a few quality commercial frozen raw diets out there. Some of the canned stuff isn’t bad.
But kibble, by definition, is missing the single most important macronutrient in a cat’s diet: water. As desert carnivores, cats get most of their water from their prey, and they don’t have a very strong thirst instinct.
Substituting tuna-flavored Wheaties for prey is a recipe for disaster.
But, even if you must feed kibble…don’t free-feed. Regardless of what you’re feeding the cat, the secret to weight control is so simple as to be trivial: only feed the cat two or three times a day, and only leave the food out for 20 minutes at a time. Set a timer; when it goes off, pick up the bowl.
Yes, the cat will pitifully cry for food an hour later. Tough shit. He’ll get his chance at dinnertime — at which time he’ll snarf down the whole bowl. But, even if he leaves a bit in the bowl, pick it up and don’t serve him any more until the next meal.
You’re not likely going to have to worry about portion sizes once you’ve got the cat on a schedule. A cat can only eat so much at a meal, so, by feeding him only a couple / few times a day, you’ve automagically restricted his portions to basically exactly how much he should be eating.
Water, of course, should always be available…but, ideally, you should also be mixing in all his water into his food. Do not do this with kibble! Kibble is positively loaded with bacteria, and getting it wet will practically cause the bacteria to explode. But with raw or canned food, just mix in enough water so it’s almost soupy.
If you want to be easy on the cat, you can transition to a new diet slowly. But, if you’re already feeding on a schedule, it goes much quicker. Set out the new food an be prepared to discard that meal as the cat sniffs it and walks disdainfully away. Set out (a fresh serving of) the same new food the next meal, and the cat will reluctantly nibble around the edges before leaving most of it. The third meal, the cat will inhale the new food and possibly ask for more. You will, of course, have to put up with incessant demands for food between mealtimes that first day….
Cheers,
b&
Watched it before commenting. This one was not bad at all, I have seen far worse similar videos. Knowing that the cat has problems, the other solution is to *let the cat out* the old-fashioned way. By hand. (Mine easily learned to ring a bell.)
Such a shame the cat wasn’t wearing a flat cap.
I thought it was going to be much worse before I watched it. Poor tubby kitty. It’s hard to keep some animals from getting fat. My guinea pigs were a bit on the chubby side even though I tried not to over feed them but when they got older they got more buxom.
I think the bigger cat flap is a good idea. A portlier port for the plumper feline!
Good exercise getting through the flap. Install several cat flaps.
I should probably install one of these for myself – would force me to lay off the Starbucks fraps.
ha!
I once had a cat that was 20 pounds. All muscle, which he ended up cutting through when he’d go out for a few months at a time because he’d get caught in hunting traps. Honestly, I have no idea how that cat survived.
Was his name, “Bob”?
b&
Or a small bear with a clip-on tail?
Almost stuck. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, as they say.
So, it’s a fat cat mishap cat flap flap.
Dr Seuss could have phrased it better
“Flap +” Jerry? I know an anti-agenda when I see one. LOL
Don’t let the buggers through the city gates or it’s all over.
The sort of cat that gets overweight is the one that bugs you constantly for food and gets fed in self defense. The solution is to just give it a couple of kibbles so it thinks it’s been fed and leaves you alone for a bit. Raw food is better too, it’s harder to digest and provides fewer calories for the same quantity of food. Some modern cats don’t realise it’s food however.
When I had my first zoology course in university, we did numerous dissections. My partner and I had a small squid specimen, which made it difficult to identify parts, so when we did the cat dissection I grabbed a large one.
My mistake, the poor cat had been pampered to death. It’s skin was a good inch thick, most of which was fat, and I pulled a piece of fat the size of 4 fingers off of the pericardium and not attached to anything.
It’s a shame when a cat reaches that size unnecessarily.
Fortunately it’s not a Maine Coon. Imagine a normal Maine trying to get through one of those mouse doors.
A neighbour has a 1/4 Maine Coon tom, and it’s head + body is getting on for 2ft in length. He’s huge, and still filling out as is a young cat. Same neighbour also has a Jack Russell cross, the cat is significantly bigger than the dog.
Am I the only one who reads “cat flap” and thinks of BlackAdder? As I recall, “cat flap” is another word for arsehole, at least in the episode where BlackAdder is under threat by an obese, perverse, corrupt local clergy. Anyone? Anyone?
No. Black Adder II, Episode 4, “Money”
Edmund: (reading over a tombstone) “William Greeves: born 1513 in Chelshood with the love of Christ; died 1563 in … agony with a spike up his bottom.”
Beggar: “Ah! ‘Tis ever with the Black Monks! Oh! Screamed, did he ~ scream & gurgle as they skewered his catflap for once of a farthing!
[I think “once” should be “want” here]
>he solution (which is mine): build bigger flaps
I lived in a place that got robbed by an urchin who got in thru the cat flap.
There’s also raccoons. They really appreciate these doors. Dog food, cat food, they don’t mind.
Yes, I know of the RFID in the cat collar technology but amongst other things, the collar doesn’t always come back when the cat does.
My cousin found that out the hard way when, as a small child, she kept dressing her cats up in her bathing suits. The cat came back without the bathing suit on. She lost a lot of bathing suits that way.
Also RFID doors don’t stop tailgating. And that they will remain unlocked if cat decides to sleep by the door.
More pets in the UK are being ID chipped so don’t need the collars, but even so the “smart” catflaps aren’t an automatic solution!
That’s so mean! You would at least try to get a bigger cat-flap for the poor thing!