Why you should not feed your cat table scraps

image I don't know what it is about oversized domestic cats that's so endlessly fascinating, but I've got to admit that, as the owner of a rather corpulent kitty, I'm just as intrigued by this subject as everyone else seems to be. So anyway, first there was Snowball. Then along came Munchkin. And now the latest tubby tabby to do the email rounds is Scrappy, the Super-Sized Cat. This email comes with the subject line: Why you shouldn't feed your cat table scraps. I don't know if it's real or not, but at the risk of putting my reputation as a hoax expert on the line, it kind of looks real to me.
Update: A visitor pointed out that for more tubby cats it's worth visiting tubcat.com.

Animals Photos

Posted on Wed Feb 18, 2004


Comments

That's probably a Maine Coon cat. A friend of my parents has one. They are a very large and furry type of cat.
Posted by sombrero11  on  Wed Feb 18, 2004  at  04:46 PM
It is real. I have one just like it. It is a Cornish Debutsi cat. They are very big, but friendly. Not good for people with cat allergies.
Posted by Xavier  on  Thu Feb 19, 2004  at  01:46 AM
Looks real to me too. The cat is no special breed. Some cats acquire genetic deficiencies such as growth. It's rare but, it does happen. Usually they don't survive long. The size alone appears to be a record setter.
Posted by Rick  on  Thu Feb 19, 2004  at  08:48 AM
"The size alone appears to be a record setter."

Of course, you are assuming that the woman in the picture is of average size... The cat may be big, but she may also be tiny.
Posted by sombrero11  on  Thu Feb 19, 2004  at  01:38 PM
I'm pullin' for not real here. The cat is disproportianately sized it apperas to be far too long and way too skinny to be unaltered. Also if it was indeed real it just looks larger because it's hair is so friggin' long
Posted by J  on  Thu Feb 19, 2004  at  02:11 PM
I just noticed that if you look closely you can see the reflection of the woman holding the cat in the window behind her. That would be pretty hard to photoshop. Not impossible, but hard. If it were fake, I would be surprised that the hoaxer showed that much attention to detail.
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Thu Feb 19, 2004  at  02:23 PM
Doesn't it kind of look like the cats eyes are the same size as her eyes?
Posted by Miss-Black  on  Thu Feb 19, 2004  at  03:02 PM
I've still gtta say it's not legit, there is something not right about the reflection in the window. Indeed it would be dificult to photoshopi it however there is not much detail and all that is needed is a simple white that would be easy to simply paint in. It's the reflection of the window that bugs me though. It seems that if she indeed had a reflection at that angle to the camera that parts of the window that are exposed wouldn't be
Posted by J  on  Fri Feb 20, 2004  at  02:08 PM
I just want to tell you about this web page, below. Scroll down until you get to Leo .... I was wondering if that's really Leo.

http://www.verismocat.com/htmscripts/petscompp3.htm#leo
Posted by Jonathan Calabretta  on  Sat Feb 21, 2004  at  08:48 PM
leo doesn't have white feet.
Posted by ringworm  on  Tue Feb 24, 2004  at  03:02 PM
he's real - http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/bigcat2.asp
Posted by ringworm  on  Thu Feb 26, 2004  at  02:33 AM
I think it is real, but I also think that the woman in the photo is really really tiny. Even my 10 lb cat looks big when being held by my 5'tall friend.
Posted by Marina  on  Thu Feb 26, 2004  at  11:45 AM
Looks real to me, if my 5'2 mum held my 15 pound cat it would look like that, especially the way she's holding him.
Posted by Ariel  on  Sun May 30, 2004  at  05:31 PM
I really don't think that picture of the cat and her owner is real. The reason being, is that all of the technology today, you can do anything with a picture! I mean, you can make a 400 pound man look like a 4 year old boy. (somehow) I haven't figured it out yet, but it can't be right. My cat nor my dog isn't that big, and they eat more food from the table than I do!
~Kristina~
Posted by Kristina  on  Wed Jun 02, 2004  at  06:48 PM
I agree with Ariel and Marina. It's all done with midgets.
Posted by M Dal  on  Wed Jun 02, 2004  at  10:17 PM
can't be, the cat looks pretty long too..but the eyes thing is a bit weird, that miss black mentioned.
Posted by Britt  on  Thu Jun 03, 2004  at  11:04 PM
Look at the position of her arms. For anyone to have their arms folded up that close to shoulders, they have no room to put a cat in between. I think it is a fake, albeit a very good one.
Posted by ltlmrmd  on  Fri Jun 04, 2004  at  10:27 PM
who cares if its real or not, its funny!
Posted by wicked96  on  Mon Jun 07, 2004  at  02:11 AM
There is a lot of odd blurring around the tail, as well as some strange shadowing on the lower parts of both the girl and the cat.



The odd shadowing could have been a photoshop touch up to mask problems witht the remastered photo, but that would imply a light source diagonally above and in front of the girl, which would cause the front paw on the cat to produce a shadow. The front paw casts no shadow at all, and with a light source in front and above the girl, there should be a shadow on her upper stomach, or the cats lower body.
Posted by jarrod  on  Fri Jun 11, 2004  at  03:22 AM
:exclaim: Snopes.com has investigated the matter, and a local radio station caught up with the woman and had her take MORE photographs to prove that IT IS NOT A HOAX. Here's the link for you doubters out there: http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/bigcat2.asp
Posted by Shuke  on  Wed Jun 23, 2004  at  07:39 PM
What I find as a master touch is the reflection of both owner and cat on the window. Instead of trying to sort it out thinking with new technologies, my guess is that the solution is in the scale. Therefore, we can have really tiny furniture, a very small woman (or girl with proper makeup to look older) and a regular sized cat.
Posted by Gabriel  on  Sun Jun 27, 2004  at  12:13 AM
all the giant cat photos are fake! they are a trendy new fad, like Furbies and giga pets and sneakers that light up when you walk
Posted by john  on  Sat Jul 03, 2004  at  08:34 PM
That picture MAY be a hoax, but the idea of very large cats is NOT, I can assure you. It was all over the news a while back, with god knows how many news channels covering it. If it were a hoax, then they must have spent a huge amount of money on a robot cat that can walk on its own and create sounds that are rarely the same.
Posted by Rykuro  on  Wed Jul 28, 2004  at  09:25 PM
That is a Maine Coon cat being held by a petite woman. Coon cats can get to be very tall (long) and because this one has long, fluffy hair, it looks bigger. This phoo is not a fake.
Posted by Victoria  on  Sat Aug 07, 2004  at  06:41 PM
Riley, the cat, seems to be a bit bigger than my own cat, who has a bit of Maine Coon in him, but only by a few pounds and inches because my own cat usually is about 18 - 20 pounds. Also, most cat's fur does not stand out from their bodies like that.
Posted by Ariel  on  Tue Aug 10, 2004  at  10:37 PM
For anyone that also has a Maine Coon Cat, this is indeed real! These cats can grow to be extrememly large & long, have oversized paws and are very long haired. My own guy likes to be held, stretched out like this one - and excluding tail,is a good 24" long. (Include the raccoon type tail - and he's almost 3 feet long when stretched.) I also, though, agree that the woman is very petite in this photo.

Don't you just want to cuddle this furry friend?
Posted by Kim  on  Tue Aug 31, 2004  at  03:32 PM
:exclaim: :exclaim: :exclaim: Snopes.com has investigated the matter, and a local radio station caught up with the woman and had her take MORE photographs to prove that IT IS NOT A HOAX. Here's the link for you doubters out there: http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/bigcat2.asp
Posted by Shuke on Wed Jun 23, 2004 at 04:39 PM
Posted by Shuke  on  Tue Aug 31, 2004  at  05:37 PM
OK I would have believed this if the woman holding the cat actually looked like it was hard holding a fat ass cat like that but it looks like she is holding thin air and plus the cat would have a heart attache before getting that big!!
Posted by Ashley Brothers  on  Thu Apr 28, 2005  at  01:10 PM
"Snopes.com has investigated the matter, and a local radio station caught up with the woman and had her take MORE photographs to prove that IT IS NOT A HOAX. Here's the link for you doubters out there: http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/bigcat2.asp
Posted by Shuke on Wed Jun 23, 2004 at 04:39 PM
Posted by Shuke
Posted by Kammy  on  Mon Aug 08, 2005  at  09:55 PM
Kammy, thanks for posting what has already been posted three times previously.
Posted by Smerk  on  Tue Aug 09, 2005  at  12:20 AM
If you love fat cats, here's another site for ya: http://www.fatfelines.com. They also have a fat cat hoax page: http://www.fatfelines.com/hoax.html.
Posted by nipps210  on  Fri Dec 16, 2005  at  09:16 AM
Here are those links again. They're not working in my last post:
http://www.fatfelines.com
http://www.fatfelines.com/hoax.html
Posted by nipps210  on  Fri Dec 16, 2005  at  09:19 AM
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