A cat living in the basement of a hospital in Russia was so overweight it couldn't walk when rescuers found it.
When she was put on the scale, it showed 17 kg which corresponds to the average weight of a four-year-old child. As a result, Kroshik was put on a diet and exercise program at an animal shelter to lose weight.
Rescuers said Kroshik was believed to have been abandoned and somehow ended up in the basement of the hospital in Prem, a town near the Ural Mountains. There, the well-meaning staff fed the feline biscuits and soup.
"Her story is an extremely rare case of someone loving a cat so much that they feed it in such a state," said a spokeswoman for the Matroskin shelter in Prem.
Kroshik, who bears a striking resemblance to the cartoon character Garfield, is so obese that vets couldn't do an ultrasound because of his thick layers of fat.
Currently, she is on a strict diet to ensure she sheds the excess weight. It is also placed on a treadmill as part of the weight loss exercise.
He needs to lose around 70% of his body weight to reach his ideal weight of 4,5kg, British tabloid The Sun reported.
