WATERVILLE VALLEY, N.H. (AP) - Guests at a hotel in New Hampshire can be forgiven for thinking a raccoon is lounging out front.
The huge ball of fur on the sidewalk of the Best Western Silver Fox Inn at the Waterville Valley Resort is actually a fat cat. A really fat cat.
The 8-year-old tabby is named Logan and weighs 31 pounds - nearly three times the size of a normal cat. Often found wandering through the hotel or stretched out on the sidewalk, Logan has become a huge hit with visitors and is an internet sensation. Guests have posted photos of Logan sitting in a chair, and a Facebook video that's been viewed 29 million times, shows it waddling through the parking lot.
Susan and Tor Brunvand adopted Logan from a Meridith, New Hampshire, shelter six years ago. Logan arrived as a normal sized cat but soon was gobbling up food from the bowls of the couple's two other cats and finding a way to sneak into the stash of food. Logan slowly put on weight.
Susan Brunvand said she once had a 20-pound cat, but that cat was big because it was part Maine Coon.
The couple took Logan to a vet and had his blood tested. Nothing was found. He even had stretches - once after a fight with a feral cat - where he barely ate for several weeks. Still, nothing reduced the size of the obese feline.
"We've tried everything," she said, attributing his girth to a slow metabolism.
Reaction to the cat has been a mix of amazement and concern about its health. After the video was posted, Brunvand said she got a call from someone wanting to bring her up on animal abuse charges for allowing the cat to get so big.
"I just wonder why a person would have a pet and let it get that heavy," said Janet Lynn, a hotel guest from Manchester, New Hampshire.
Brunvand insists there is little more she can do - or should do - to help the cat she calls her "little chubby boy, my little bear" shed the weight.
She laughed at the suggestion of putting Logan on a treadmill. Rather, she lets Logan act like her two other cats, spending the day outdoors.