“OMG, big boi Mr. B is a CHONK…He’s a chonk of a chonk. He redefines the term.” – Morris Animal Refuge
UPDATE – CURRENT NEWS:
“We have gotten it narrowed down to a handful of potential adopters that we think can give him the perfect home. His adoption should be finalized early this week!”
BeeJay (‘Mr B’), is a huge, big-boned, tabby cat up for adoption at a Philadelphia-based animal rescue. He was given up by his ‘owner(s)’ because they no longer had the means to care for him. An ironic situation bearing in mind Mr B’s enormous popularity.
He weighs twenty-six pounds and it does not look as if he is fat – perhaps slightly overweight. He is just one of those cats who was born big and they are rare. He’s at the Morris Animal Refuge where they describe him as a “jumbo -sized package of fluff and love”. He looks very laid back. Good guard cat!
There just may be some Maine Coon in him but that is a guess. I say this because of his strong muzzle and his lynx tipped ears.
He’s two years of age and incredibly popular. His picture has been posted on Twitter where it has gone viral and been widely shared. The picture has been liked almost 35,000 times and garnered 10,500 retweets in less than 24 hours.
The Morris Animal Refuge website crashed because of the number of visits to it to have a look at this jumbo-sized, beautiful feline boy. They have received an overwhelming number of applications to adopt him. Apparently, he is not quite ready to be rehomed but no doubt when he is ready he’ll be much loved by a very lucky family.
Here is another photo which shows us that he is big-boned:
One potential adopter wanted to donate:
“I’ll gladly pay and can provide additional donates to help your other animals in need. Your website is down and phone lines busy..”
Mr. B. apologizes for crashing our website. We have our team working to get it back up as we speak. Unfortunately, they’re all cats, so it may take a little while. In the meantime, you can see him & other awesome adoptables on our @petfinder page: https://t.co/9CnmAUYnSa. Thanks! pic.twitter.com/GLXkrDtRmy
— Morris Animal Refuge (@MorrisAnimal) August 22, 2019
There are some amusing comments:
One commenter joked: “What does he eat? Protein shakes and little children?” While another amateur Twitter comedian said: “Was this cat experimented on by a baby formula company?”
The uncomfortable aspect of this adulation for an interesting cat is that it points to a human fascination with cat size and appearance in general. To be brutally honest this is not good. A lot of people want a huge domestic cat as a status symbol. It is like owning a nice car. There should be a greater focus on wanting to adopt the unwanted. That really is the greatest gift.
Officially, the average weight of domestic cats is around 8-12 pounds. BeeJay is more than twice this.
I have a video and I hope it works for you:
Dan McQuade of the website Deadspin.com visited Morris Animal Refuge to meet Mr B. He says that Morris’s development director was on the phone to ABC! Clearly Mr B has gone mega viral. Mr B has already been on the Philly CBS station and on Fox 29’s Good Day Philadelphia.
Dan said that Mr B is cute and shy ‘but friendly enough’. He is just a nice cat under all that celebrity. In fact he is a little shy; not really cut out for all the celebrity TV stuff. What domestic cat is?
ADDRESS OF MORRIS ANIMAL REFUGE: 1242 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147.
SOME MORE ARTICLES ON DOMESTIC CAT SIZE:
Has anyone considered that Mr. B is actually a Maine Coon Or part Maine Coon? I sent this to my friend who had a Maine Coon named Horsie who was easily that size. That was her first reaction.
Yes, I did but he looks like a random bred cat if we are honest. There are 2 characteristics which are slightly Maine Coon, the lynx tipped ears and the strong muzzle.