Every cat owner remembers that first night: a kitten small enough to nap in a cereal bowl, crying at a volume that seemed physically impossible for its size. You promised to protect this fragile little creature forever. A year later, the fragile little creature sleeps in the middle of the bed, and you sleep on the edge.
The speed isn't your imagination. Kittens do most of their growing in the first six months, roughly doubling their weight every few weeks. Most are fully grown by their first birthday, at around 10 pounds. Then there are the overachievers. Maine Coons can keep growing for three to five years, and a full-grown male typically weighs 18 to 22 pounds, which is about what a one-year-old child weighs and considerably more than anyone signed up to carry up the stairs.
The owners below kept the receipts: photos of the same cat before and after it discovered its full potential. Scroll through, and if your own palm-sized kitten has turned into a small child with whiskers, share the evidence in the comments.
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"We found Gouda in the middle of a busy road with a horrible upper respiratory infection and her eyes crusted shut when she was about 4 weeks old. She’s now 1 year old and 13 pounds of love. I didn’t want a cat, but now I can’t imagine being without her."
"Nugget —> 20ct Spicy Chicken McNugget Sharebox."
That box must still smell of Chicken Nuggets, a good contender for the best "If I fits, I sits" box ever!
"Little Maui"
And with the belly exposed - that's one loving, trusting cat!
"My orange boy Ben was a scrawny little kitten. His adopted sister is a week older than him and she made him look small. Now, he’s more than twice her size."
"The runt of her litter: Yuka. She went from a tiny little thing to a 23-lb monster. (She’s on a diet and has now gotten down to 14 lbs. Clap for her!)"
"He grew into the thumbs."
Polys are gorgeous cats. Spencer had 26 toes and all his beans were pink.
"My tiny babies became big neighborhood watchers."
"Still palm sized, with more fluff."
Tuxedo is my absolute lifelong favorite cat coat pattern/coloration. Please don't tell this to the 4 of my 7 cats who aren't tuxedoes XD
"On the left, my daughter is holding both cats when we got them. Pay special attention to Marble, the grey tabby on the right. In the next picture, my daughter is holding Marble, aka Mr. Chunkybutt, three years later. He’s been that size since the end of his first year."
"Artemis. She was so cute and sweet, and now she becomes a monster at 4:40 a.m. and tries to destroy everything I own."
I would have said she was a dilute calico judging by her kitten pic, but I can see by her adult pic that she is a gorgeous tabico (a calico where there pigmented/non-white fur patches are tabby-patterned.)
"My 18lb bowling ball Dexter."
"Yes. My Poop-Master 2000 turned into a Maine Coon."
Definitely not a Maine Cöon, but a lovely big kitty nonetheless XD
"She was so small when I found her that we used a dish towel as a blanket, lol. Now she’s grown and full of sass, attitude, and straight-up cuteness. Peep her looking at her siblings like they don’t have any sense."
"This is Harvey. He could fit into my hoodie pocket when we brought him home… he now can’t even fit in a normal-sized cat tree."
I love how the fur of colorpoint cats darken as they age! You never know exactly how "toasted" a colorpoint kitty is going to get when they're wee kittens XD (This is due to a temperature-sensitive mutation with the enzyme tyrosinase, which affects pigmentation. Colorpoint cats are usually born all-white and darken the most at their "coldest" extremities: limbs, tail, ears, and muzzle. Colorpoint cats' coats will usually darken overall, and will, in fact, get even darker if they live in a cold climate as adults!)
"Lucky. He used to be Lucky Ducky, and now he’s Goose. He’s one year and two months old and weighs the same as his petite sister and undersized brother combined."
"This is baby Gus next to big, floofy Gus. 50% floof, 50% sass."
"My little princess."
I love when cats have that determined expression of the second picture, my tuxie looks like that just before she does something she knows not to.
"Lil and a Lil Murderous."
"Smokey the Maine Coon as a baby: aww. Smokey the Maine Coon as a 10-kg (22-lb) derpy cat, bigger than his dog bed: awww."
I've always wanted one, unfortunately I'm not the type of human these magnificent creatures need to stay healthy and maintain their coats.
"Found these brothers last year (and their mom) living in a tiny hole under a portable at the school where I worked. Now they’re almost the size of our 5-year-old cat (the black-and-white one)."
"He was found alone in the road and we snuck him in with a mama I was fostering at the time. And now we have this majestic beast."
"3 pounds in 2017, 16 pounds now. RBF forever intact."
Ticked tabby! This means the kitty's individual hairs are agouti, with alternating bands of light and dark pigmentation on each hair. This is what causes the "salt and pepper" look to the coat instead of what we think of as "normal" tabby stripes.
"Literally he went from a 436 gram pocket bat to a 15lb fluff plume. Meet Poe."
“We rescued him at 3.5 weeks, and he was less than a pound. Now he’s 6 years old and 20 lbs of attitude.”
I've shown Joseph before and I'll show him again XD From less than a pound when Fenring found him and his sister in my backyard (at 5-6 weeks old) to 15+ lbs of the most himbo floof I've ever known (he and Spicy are a year and a half old now.) He's by far my largest cat and is also the sweetest - he is a complete marshmallow who loves belly rubs. He will mew back at you in the cutest, tiniest high-pitched "mee mee meew"s if you call his name or sing the first few lines of the musical "Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (his namesake) at him. I'm not sure there's ever been a thought in his head, but he's such a dear boy. See pic below :)
Next let it be the turn of before-and-after puppies and dogs please!
Maybe it was growing up with the Three Stooges... but there's something about a cat paw-smacking a dog that is endlessly amusing
Load More Replies...I've shown Joseph before and I'll show him again XD From less than a pound when Fenring found him and his sister in my backyard (at 5-6 weeks old) to 15+ lbs of the most himbo floof I've ever known (he and Spicy are a year and a half old now.) He's by far my largest cat and is also the sweetest - he is a complete marshmallow who loves belly rubs. He will mew back at you in the cutest, tiniest high-pitched "mee mee meew"s if you call his name or sing the first few lines of the musical "Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (his namesake) at him. I'm not sure there's ever been a thought in his head, but he's such a dear boy. See pic below :)
Next let it be the turn of before-and-after puppies and dogs please!
Maybe it was growing up with the Three Stooges... but there's something about a cat paw-smacking a dog that is endlessly amusing
Load More Replies...
