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The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION

Fat cat, habitat: Feline that weighs as much as a 4-year-old child seeks a home in US

By: The Associated Press

Posted: 03/1/2013 1:23 PM | Comments: 0 | Last Modified: 03/1/2013 1:30 PM

In this Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 image made from video provided by the St. Charles Animal Control shelter, Biscuit, a 37-pound cat, looks at his cage in the shelter in St. Charles, Mo. At more than two-and-a-half times the size of a normal cat, the shelter says the the morbidly obese feline has been put on a diet, but he needs an owner who will closely monitor what he eats. (AP Photo/St. Charles Animal Control via St. Louis Post Dispatch)

ST. CHARLES, Mo. - At 37 pounds (16 kilograms), Biscuit the cat is about the right weight for a 4-year-old — human, that is.

A U.S. animal shelter is trying to find him a new home.

Biscuit's first owner was a disabled woman who fed him lots of treats. Now he's roughly three times the weight of a healthy adult cat, and he's restricted to about a cup of diet food per day.

His owner brought him in about a year ago because she could no longer care for him, Teresa Gilley, the shelter's lead animal control officer, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper.

"She didn't mean the cat any harm," Gilley said. "I just think she didn't know any better."

Gilley said the cat has begun adjusting to his new low-calorie diet. When he arrived, Biscuit could only take a few steps before lying down and panting, but now he's showing increased energy.

"The other day I went into the office, and he was up in the chair," Gilley said. "So he was able to jump pretty high."

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