Name: 43-Pound Cat Goes On Inspirational Weight Loss Journey | The Dodo
Uploaded: 2025-11-21T14:08:13.000Z
Duration: 6 min 25 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Basic passive voice

When he was surrendered to the shelter, he weighed 43 pounds.

Adverbs of degree

I remember thinking, is this the heaviest cat in the world?

I immediately volunteered to foster Biggie.

I just couldn't imagine how hard having that extra weight was on his body, sir.

So we got started right away and we got him on the weight loss plan.

Helping Biggie shed pounds has always been my priority.

He's made great strides already and although his weight loss journey isn't over, he's now at a healthier weight.

So I'm excited for him to start eating IAM's healthy weight dry food for cats.

It helps overweight cats like Biggie lose excess weight over time and can help him keep fit, playful and active with its high protein chicken recipe.

Honestly, it's hard to believe where we started.

When we took him to the vet, he just had some arthritis but no other health complications.

The vet told us at his weight, he's at a big risk.

He needed to lose weight as fast as possible, but as safe as possible.

Our vet recommended we start at around 500 calories for him, which is kind of mind blowing because the average cat is a little over 100 calories a day.

But it was still less than what he had been eating normally.

The first week was such a challenge for him, no?

He would rock his food bowl when he was hungry, which was all the time.

Because of his weight and his lack of mobility, he couldn't groom, so his fur was not in the greatest condition.

On Friday we would do his weigh ins and we would call it weigh in.

Friday, his first weigh in, he already lost a pound.

I was so excited because it showed us that we may actually see him become a cat again.

The next week he could walk a few steps, but he would be completely exerted.

He would have to lie down, catch his breath before he would even move again.

So we really had to be cognizant about how much we encouraged him to move.

We're just focused on getting him to make those simple movements.

But in that second week, he lost another half a pound.

We had our momentum going and the first month we were rocking, seemed like he was doing great and he was averaging like a half a pound a week.

That second month he started to become a little bit more mobile.

All of those little things that you take for granted that a cat can do.

As the weeks went by, we started incorporating more play based activities.

So two minutes started becoming three minutes.

He started going down the stairs, but he couldn't get back up the stairs.

Well, if you get down, you've got to come back up.

So multiple times a day, I have to carry his chalky butt all the way up the stairs.

By three months in, we really started seeing his personality come out.

You've already gotten breakfast and all your snacks.

That's when we started to have to really keep an eye on him.

It just astonished me with how crafty he was.

There was one week where he had a pretty significant gain and we found out he was stealing food from the other cats.

He also was able to get into our pantry, so we started putting child locks on everything.

Over time, he seemed more energized, more willing to play and have fun.

And as the days went on, he actually started enjoying movement.

We've done things from children's ball pits into, like, more agility courses.

With Biggie, Whatever he's interested in, we're just going to take that and run with it and get the most that we can out of him.

Seven months in, he was able to finally walk up the stairs.

It honestly felt he can do anything if we just continue on the path that we're on.

Biggie now can do two 15 minute sessions a day.

As his journey evolved, we started getting contacted by lots of people who had cats like Biggie.

I learned that over 60% of domestic pets are overweight cats especially.

So we thought, why not create a space that can have more big cats and help them on their journeys of weight loss so they're not at risk of euthanasia.

We give these chunky cats a second chance at adoption.

So that's where the big house sanctuary was born.

So it's been a year since Biggie's been in our care and the journey has been incredible.

He's lost 15 pounds and I honestly didn't think we would be here now.

I just couldn't imagine him anywhere else.

He's become part of our family, so we've officially adopted him.

And we thought it was a great time to have a little potty for him and all of his little friends.

We set up a little Gacha Day event for him to celebrate everything he's done.

The fact that he's lost more than an entire regular cat in weight is awesome.

It means so much to give him the opportunity to be who he was meant to be.

Just seeing him be that makes my heart so happy and so fulfilled, Sam.