Sprinkles the cat needs help getting back in shape

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. -- A New Jersey cat named Sprinkles has gained a noticeable amount of fame over her sizable figure.

It's a sad tale as to how she became so big, but a local group was hoping to get her back in good shape.

Sprinkles is a domestic short hair who weighs an incredible 33 pounds.

After being surrendered when her owner's home was foreclosed on, she's now in the hands of the non-profit group SOS - Sea Isle City Cats.

This fat cat was too big for the county animal shelter to handle and was moved to SOS in a dog carrier.

"One of our volunteer members has a 23-year-old son who works locally and he carried her up the steps for us - we couldn't lift her," said Stacy Jones Olandt from Sea Isle City Cats.

Sprinkles was a mess when SOS got her. She had terrible fleas, ear mites, and very overweight.

"Her little feet should be together and they're grossly wide apart from being hardly able to stand she can now waddle a little bit," Jones Olandt said.

If she were a regular cat, Sprinkles would weigh in at about 10 pounds. What she actually weighs is the equivalent of a human tipping the scales at 600 or 700 pounds.

Sea Isle City Mayor Len Desiderio described Sprinkles as "Huge. Huge. It's a big cat and I've proclaimed it to be See Isle's Top Cat."

The SOS group suspects Sprinkles may have been used to eating table scraps. She doesn't have much interest in canned food.

"So we were thinking she probably would like a Big Mac, chicken nuggets," Jones Olandt said.

Sprinkles will eventually go up for adoption, but right now is on a diet of four cans of cat food a day. The weight-loss has to be gradual.

"It's gonna take a good year, year and a half to get her back to where she should be," said Maggie Sgalio from Sea Isle City Cats.

Sprinkles' veterinarian joked that if she loses weight and is bothered by excess skin, he will happily throw in a tummy tuck.