Meet Fat Xiang or Fat “Lucky Guy”, a red tabby munchkin who has been going viral recently for his nearly constant state of sleep in adorable and silly ways only cats can do. Oh, don’t worry, sleep isn’t all that he does, but he does that quite a fair bit regardless.
Back in 2016, Fat Xiang was a stray cat who was saved and adopted by his new owner, Jessie, a dentist from Taiwan. He was found injured due to fighting with some other strays on the streets.
In an interview with Bored Panda, his owner Jessie shared: “I adopted Xiang in 2016. He was a stray cat and all of the neighbors liked him. Sadly, he would often get hurt by other stray cats who fought with him, and he was small and not strong enough to defend himself. So, I adopted him,” said Jessie.
It was also explained that Fat Xiang is a TNR, or a trap–neuter–return, cat, whereby cats are captured, neutered in order to control cat populations and to stop the spread of disease, and are let out to continue wandering the streets.
According to his owner, Fat Xiang gave out a vibe of being “not a very kissy cat”, one that would keep to himself because he would often fight with other strays. But he ended up being a cat that’s cool with everything. Whenever his owner calls him by his name, he stomps towards him on his cute short legs.
“He sleeps about 16-20 hours per day. I was worried if he was sick and took him to the clinic,” elaborated Jessie. “The vet checked his X-ray, and said everything is normal, apart from his FIV. He suspects that Xiang now sleeps a lot more because he was constantly nervous in the street.”
Xiang now lives happily with his owner and another cat named Shuai (meaning “Handsome”) in Taiwan.
He continued: “Xiang gets things like the flu, rhinitis, and eye ɪɴꜰʟᴀᴍᴍᴀᴛɪᴏɴ easily due to FIV. But he’s still enjoying his life with Shuai and us. He’s always playing with Shuai—since Xiang’s leg are shorter, it’s funny to see him fight with Shuai.
A post also elaborated that the owner often gets questions of whether they’re afraid to adopt and becoming emotionally attached to cats with FIV and other risk factors (such as old age):
“I think life and ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ are natural among animals, all of them will eventually ᴅiᴇ—but if we can let them have a loving home and have them leave us within that comfort, I can bear it.”
He continued: “The big difference between humans and other animals is that, whether it be financial or emotional frustration, there will always be opportunities, choices, and it will slowly get better for us humans. But, for the animal, the owner is their entire world.”
