Couple falls in love and adopts 33 pound cat, dedicating their time to his weight loss journey

“Hi, my name is Mike Wilson and together with my girlfriend Megan Hanneman we have a company that makes wall-mounted cat furniture designed to promote activity for indoor cats,” Mike shared on Bored Panda.

A couple of months ago, we decided to bring a new kitten into our home to join the two cats we had already. One day, when we only had 45 minutes before we had to be at work, we decided to head over to our local Humane Society to have a look around. When we walked in, we were instantly drawn to this gentle giant named Bronson.

After we left, neither of us could stop talking about him and how much fun it would be to bring him home and help him lose the extra pounds. We went back to the Humane Society the following day, shortly after they opened, and sat down with a staff member. She told us that all the Humane Society knew about Bronson’s past was that his last owner passed away.

Since he was all the way up to 33 pounds and only three years old, they suspected it was an elderly person who may have been feeding him table scraps or something. We went in to meet him and instantly fell in love. I remember my cheeks hurting from smiling for so long.

Bronson was so affectionate and sweet and was happily kneading his cat bed when we first petted him. All of a sudden, we noticed that he was a polydactyl cat with extra fingers and had very pronounced thumbs! Even more adorably, his paws oddly resembled our home state of Michigan. He was the sweetest cat we had ever met and he seemed so happy to be home and have a big space of his own.

After bringing Bronson home, we scheduled his first visit to the vet. While we were there, we found out that Bronson is also quite the ladies man. All the doctors and vet techs were taking turns coming in the room to admire his robust body, cute face, and mittens.

It’s very important for heavy cats to lose weight slowly, or else they can get Fatty Liver Disease, which can be a fatal illness. We have adjusted Bronson’s diet three times since we got him, but we think that he’s on track to safely lose this weight. He’s currently on 375 calories per day. Half of them are from the kibble the Humane Society had him on and half are from the grain-free wet food we’re weaning him onto. We’ve also changed his exercise routine a few times. At first, it was playing with toys with him laying down for about 20 minutes a day and also carrying him downstairs so that he needed to climb back up to get to his favorite napping spot.

After a few times of seeing him hustle up the stairs, we started worrying about doing damage to his joints or it hurting him while he was making the journey back up and decided to hold off until he’s a little more fit. Currently, his exercise routine is made up of moving his food dish around the room to promote walking, I feel like we’ve lost points with him on that one, and still playing with toys while he’s laying down. His absolute favorite toy is a tomato filled with catnip, which he likes to attack, bite, and kick with his back feet.

We have started an Instagram account for him so that people could follow along on his weight loss journey. It’s been a little more than two months and he already has over 13,000 followers and a really nice community of people cheering him on along his way. Many of his followers have been willing to share their tips on feline weight loss and it’s also a place where we can share their ideas.

Carrying Bronson became an issue early on. He’s so large and he carries a lot of weight in his chest, so there’s no great way to pick him up without feeling like we’re hurting or squishing him. To combat this problem, we invented the “transportation pillow,” which is.. just a pillow. As simple of an idea as it is, carrying him with his pillow has been a great way to get him out to our living room without making him incredibly uncomfortable.

There are many great qualities about Bronson that we find incredibly lovable. One of the cutest things is that he almost always sleeps with a pillow. He also isn’t shy about taking up too much bed real estate. We’ve pretty much split the bed into thirds and Megan and I have each taken turns at the end of the bed.

Our target goal is for Bronson to lose one pound per month and he’s currently down 1.6 pounds, so he’s well on his way to a healthy life. He’s not quite ready to join the other cats in testing the furniture up on the wall, but they know he’ll get there in due time.

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via Bored Panda