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Meet the eponymous fat cat!

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This lovely boy's name is Looper, and he came to live with us eight years ago. He is a rescue cat, so we don't really know how old he is, but he was thought to be about two years old at that time.

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He is big anyway (his RSPCA profile said size: large) but he eats like no cat I've ever met. For the first few months he was with us, I kept a list of the things he had eaten, or tried to eat:

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• lentils

• tortilla wraps

• salad

• maltesers

• bagels

• salt and vinegar crisps

• banana and date cake

• a grape

• broccoli

• chicken korma

• bread

• the bag containing the bread

• ovaltine

• malted milk biscuits

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He will eat almost anything he finds. I've known greedy cats before but Loopy truly is one of a kind!

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On a more serious note,  although we don't know what his life was like before he came to live with us, I think that he must have often been hungry and had no reliable access to food and so he ate whatever there was as he didn't know when he would get to eat again.

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I've always made sure that he has the right amount of food, at regular meal times, but unfortunately this hasn't stopped him finding his own extras. He has brought home the occasional mouse, but other things he has brought through the cat flap include:

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• slices of pizza

• a cupcake

• a bag of giblets

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I would love to give him the occasional treat but until he stops getting his own I have to be very strict. He is an expert at the wide-eyed plaintive maow, trying to convince us that he hasn't just finished his dinner but in fact we've forgotten to feed him for days.

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We can't leave any food unattended - he will jump up on the table or the kitchen counter at any opportunity - and has even taken crumpets out of the toaster. I regularly point out to him that as I am vegetarian and he is an obligate carnivore there should be no overlap between our diets, but that does not stop him trying to steal my lunch!

 

He attended the weight clinic at the vets for a while, with regular weigh-ins and a very expensive prescription diet. He put on weight.

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So that is why my gorgeous boy is most definitely a fat cat.

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He has never been a lap cat, but likes to sit on the arm of my armchair. One of my most favourite things is to sit in my armchair, with a crochet project on the go, and my Loops sitting next to me. If he wants me to brush him he will sit up and hold his head up high. I get purrs and head bumps in appreciation, and if I am very lucky I get full-on nuzzles. And my heart just melts.

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