Heavy Blizzard: One Yellowknife cat's weight loss journey

Move over, Tiny.

 Tiny is a formerly obese cat in Fredericton who made headlines in 2012 after losing a dramatic amount of weight. Tiny's story brought in $10,000 in donations to the local animal shelter. The famous cat was even honoured at the New Brunswick Legislature.

What you might not know is that Yellowknife has a Tiny of its own. His name is Blizzard.

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I first met 10-year-old Blizzard this summer while I was volunteering at the NWT SPCA. He was surrendered to the SPCA after his owner's several attempts to find him a new home fell through. He came in extremely obese — weighing in at nearly 25 pounds — and with a stub of a tail.

I'm not sure what he ate at his past homes, but he sure ate a lot of it. One former Blizzard foster parent told me that he had an insatiable craving for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

For a while, Blizzard was the shelter cat, and was put on a strict diet plan in the weeks that he lived there. In that time, with the help of SPCA staff, the weight began to melt off, and he lost four pounds.

But here's the thing: Blizzard didn't like dogs — and there are a lot of them at the shelter. After getting to know the little guy, I decided to foster him and help him get down to a normal, healthy weight.

After a trip to the vet, who underlined the looming threat of feline diabetes, we made a plan: Blizzard would be on an even stricter diet than before, take daily walks, and, on the recommendation of the veterinarian, spend 15 minutes a day doing some rigorous playing. Luckily for me, he seemed to enjoy chasing a stuffed mouse on a string, so I was able to lead him in some organized sprints.

Within a few weeks, he was down another two pounds. Every couple of weeks I would post an update on Facebook. People went crazy. Blizzard's posts would get close to a hundred likes. They loved Blizzard. I would get notes from people with ideas on how to make him more active, and messages asking when the next Blizzard update would be.

People I didn't even know knew about my cat. I was chatting with a lady at the pet store the other day and told her I had an overweight cat.

Her response, I kid you not: "Are you Blizzard's mom?"

The more pounds he lost, the more famous he became.

I even got a Facebook message from the lead singer of Welder's Daughter — one of Yellowknife's most well-known bands. Karen Novak and her band have lived in the Gold Range hotel, and apparently before Blizzard came to the SPCA, he also spent a stint in the famous hotel.

"Everybody knows Blizzard at the Range!" she said.

Now, after weeks of rigorous training and unbreakable willpower, Blizzard has reached a milestone. He's lost 1/3rd of his body weight, weighing in at a svelte 16.5 pounds.

Blizzard's not out of the woods just yet. He still needs to lose a few more pounds to reach a healthy weight.

But he's now tinier than Tiny — and, along with many other animals, available for adoption at the NWT SPCA.