RIP: Meow the Cat

Sad news, y’all…it seems that Meow—the morbidly obese cat of recent internet fame—was put to sleep over the weekend due to respiratory complications.

A couple weeks back Meow was surrendered to animal control when his 87-year-old owner finally realized she could no longer take care of him.

Due to her own limited mobility, she’d overfed him. Sources close to the previous owner (note: I’m assuming that means “neighbors”) have indicated that the cat’s diet consisted almost entirely of hotdogs and cat treats.

As a result, the two-year-old cat weighed-in at 39 pounds; that’s roughly the human equivalent of 600 pounds.

Meow was a national sensation for a brief period and was plastered all over the internet and even found his way onto television with appearances on Today and Anderson Cooper 360.

After the media blitz died down, Meow went to a foster home where he had already shed some pounds and seemed to be making progress.

Unfortunately, he developed respiratory problems that worsened rapidly due to his immense size and a team of veterinary specialists tried in vain to treat him over the weekend before the decision was made to put him to sleep.

Here’s part of the official statement from the Santa Fe Humane Society:

Meow – reputed to be the nation’s most overweight cat – has lost his battle with obesity. The orange-and-white tabby died unexpectedly over the weekend after he developed respiratory complications.

“We are devastated,” said Mary Martin, the Santa Fe shelter’s executive director. “We were in a race against time to get the weight off Meow before he developed complications from his morbid obesity and we lost.”

As someone who thinks chubby cats are the bee’s knees, I may not be the best guy to rant about something like this, but it bugs me that people can let things like this happen to their pets.

Admittedly, Honey is a bit of a chunker, but how in the hell do you let a cat get to 39 pounds?!

I’d like to think that it should be pretty obvious, even at 87-years-old, that your cat is crazy fat and probably not healthy.

Personally, if Honey ever gets to 20 pounds, I’m signing her up for the next season of The Biggest Loser.

Here’s hoping that the sad end to Meow’s brief time in the national spotlight serves as a reminder that pet health—be it for cats, dogs, goldfish, illegally imported koalas, whatever—is important and should be taken very seriously.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go raise a pint in memory of Meow…and make Honey run some laps