An Ottawa cat has turned into a TikTok star as he is slimming down after weighing 43 kilos.
Yes, 43 lbs. or 19.5 kilograms. ‘Axel Biggie Smalls’ is famous on social media as his West Carleton owners share his weight loss journey.
Axel Biggie Smalls weighed 43 pounds. in February. (Kristine Seguin/supplied)
When Kristine Seguin rescued Axel earlier this year, she put him on a diet.
“He weighed 43 pounds when we took him in…so he was four times the size of an average cat,” she told CTV News Ottawa.
Seguin says that through a special diet and some exercise, Axel has lost 10 pounds since February, “which is amazing,” she says, “but our goal is not just to lose weight, but to be a cat; to jump on things, enjoy things. I mean, he’s only seven years old. He’s got a lot of time left to live. And we want to make sure he enjoys it.”
Axel Biggie Smalls on the scales. He lost 10 pounds. since February. (Peter Szperling/CTV News Ottawa)A
And although he is losing weight, he, like anyone on a diet, occasionally gets ‘hungry’.
“That’s when he sometimes grabs you to try to steal food from other cats. So we had to be very creative about where we fed the other cats in the house,” she says.
Axel clearly loves food, but it’s unclear how he grew so much.
“We haven’t had much of a history, but when I’m cooking pizza, anything with cheese, he’s begging. He’s scratching me. So I assume he has human food because he really wouldn’t eat cat food when he came.”
Seguin and her family post videos of the cat’s weight loss journey on social media, aiming to raise awareness about obesity in pets.
“He’s gained a huge following of people who celebrate his weight loss every Friday and how he’s doing.”
His TikTok account has over 2.6 million likes and 128,000 followers.
And some videos — like this one about stair-climbing exercise motivation — have more than 11 million views.
Axel’s weight loss is also a gain; a fundraiser for the rescue he came from, the Ferdinand and Friends Animal Rescue Network, to “help support more cats like Mr. Biggie Smalls here,” says Seguin.
Seguin, who is also director of the Ferdinand and Friends Animal Rescue Network, says the hope is that Axel Biggie Smalls will lose another 10 to 15 pounds. during the next year.
“I have raised hundreds of cats and he is like a child. He’s one of mine now, so he’s part of our family.”
