Pussy Galore: Jersey Cat Checks in at 44 Pounds

Normally in these parts when you think of Big Pussy, one name comes to mind.

Of course, more recently there's also this guy.

But who could imagine a 44-pound feline?

That is one fat cat!

Meet Princess Chunk, a 44-pound hunk of feline flesh, a cat so big that she needs a bathtub for a litter box.

Volunteers at a New Jersey animal shelter are trying to find a new home for the corpulent kitty - a really big home.

Officials at the Camden County Animal Shelter in Blackwood say they received the cat Saturday from Animal Control after she was found wandering around outdoors with no ID tags.

As hard as it is to fathom, volunteers think her owner might have lost her, which is as difficult a possibility to imagine as, well, as a 44-pound cat.

"I mean, how do you lose a 44-pound cat?" said shelter volunteer Deborah Wright.

Wright told the Camden Courier Post that volunteers named the cat Captain Chunk until they realized it was a girl.

It was probably hard to tell.

Usually when people talk about fat cats in New Jersey, they are talking about members of the state legislature. Or extras in a "Sopranos" shoot.

But when this portly pussycat came waddling along, they knew they had something different on their hands.

"She was probably fed table scraps, or may have a thyroid problem," Wright said.

Veterinarians say a healthy cat should weigh between 10 and 12 pounds, and that Princess Chunk's condition could be a combination of bad genetics and way too much Meow Mix.

The largest tabby on record tipped the scales at 46 pounds, 15 ounces. That cat, who lived in Australia, died in the 1980s at about age 10.