A Durban cat is in line to become top dog in a national pet slimmer of the year competition.
The former fat cat, called Mr Tigger Dutton and from Durban North, is the only feline finalist in the 2012 Hill’s Pet Slimmer of the Year. Two of the nine canine contestants also come from KZN.
The competition was a small part of a campaign to combat a pet obesity epidemic, said Dr Guy Fyvie, veterinary adviser to Hill’s Pet Nutrition.
“About 50 percent of the South African [pets] that visit vets are overweight, putting them at an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and cancer,” he said.
“Rather than thinking you’re showing how much you love your pet when you over-feed or indulge them, you may be shortening their lifespan.”
Thousands of fat cats and portly pooches signed up for Hill’s slimming programme, a veterinary surgeon-supervised weight-loss regime, in a bid to shed their killer kilos.
Mr Tigger Dutton lost 44.56 percent of his bodyweight, dropping from 9.2kg to 5.1kg with the help of La Lucia Veterinary Clinic.
His owners, Mandy and John Dutton, found the domestic short-haired cat – “a wonderful marmalade gentleman” – in a home for stray cats. Four years later, disaster struck when he was cornered by a group of dogs.
“He landed up impaled on a barbed-wire fence and, after frantic moments, freed himself, only to be viciously attacked by a further three dogs,” Mandy Dutton said.
The severely injured cat spent the night up a tree, and had to be rescued the next day.