14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, on Tuesday, staff at the Maricopa County animal shelter in Arizona, US came face to face with a seriously oversized kitten named Meatball.
The feline was put on a scale, and it was thus discovered that it weighed about 36 pounds (16.3 kilograms). Otherwise put, the cat's name really does make its waistline justice.
According to Daily Mail, Meatball has had several owners over the years. The last family it lived with brought it at the animal shelter on account of their being unable to look after such a big cat.
When they turned it in, they said that they never fed the kitten anything but cat food, and that they could not explain how and why Meatball had gotten that large.
Melissa Gable, a spokesperson for the animal shelter, does not quite buy this story, and says that either Meatball is suffering from a thyroid problem, or somebody has taken good care of feeding it food scraps.
The feline is currently undergoing tests, and vets hope to soon figure out whether the cat owes its plump figure to one or more of its foster families, or if maybe its getting fat was something that happened due to health issues.
Despite the fact that it is very friendly, Meatball has not yet been put up for adoption, nor will it until the low-calorie diet it is currently on does its job of ridding it of at least some of the extra weight.