Animalbirds16

A family’s pet cat is so huge people often mistake him for a LION – and he’s still growing. Murphy the Maine Coon weighs 11kg (24.3lbs) and measures a whopping 104cm (41ins) from nose to tail, a whisker away from a world record. As Murphy is only 12 months old, he still has growing to do in his home in Worcester. His owner Sareeta Brewin, 46, says she spends a fortune feeding him as he munches through £60 worth of dry food every month. She has even had to buy an extra-large litter tray to accommodate Murphy’s massive bulk. Sareeta says people often mistake him for a dog and even a lion and often tag her in posts of big cat sightings across Worcestershire. The mum-of-three said: “Murphy is one now and we got him last November. “He was about 13 or 14 weeks old and at that stage he was the same size as our regular cat who’s only little. “It's like we’ve got a cat and a mouse with the size of him. She looks so small compared to him. “Maine Coons grow until they’re about three-years-old so who knows how big Murphy is going to get, he's already the size of your average dog. “I don’t know what I expected with him, I knew he’d be big but I didn’t expect him to be that big. Now other cats look tiny compared to him. “People do sometimes mistake him for a dog, they also make remarks about the wild cat on the loose. “Others say ‘bloody hell, is that a lion?’ He is very feline looking.” Last Christmas, Murphy chewed his way through dozens of festive lights and the family’s iPhone cables which cost a total of £300 to replace. Sareeta, a product manager in medical devices, said: “We call him Thor because he’s very handsome but he is quite dim. “He does eat a fair bit. He goes through a £20 3kg biscuit bag a month. I'm glad he prefers the dry biscuits as it would be so expensive for the meat. “If it was wet food it would be a fortune. “We haven’t put up our Christmas decorations up this year yet. “He chewed his way through 12 sets of lights last year, we had to buy reinforced cables around the house as he chews them. “We spent an absolute fortune on them. “I’ve even had to buy a dog carrier for him when I take him to the vets because he won’t fit in a cat carrier. “He's like a cat and a dog. They've very much like dogs, he greets you and brings you his toys to play with. He talks and communicates. “How Huskey's are very vocal, Maine Coons are too. He talks. “He is still essentially a kitten, he bombs around the house and has that mad half hour. “The dogs are a bit freaked out by him, they don’t mind him. The little cat doesn’t mind him, they do play.” Sareeta said she’ll be keeping an extra close eye on his length in the coming years to see if he can break the record. She added: “I’m sure we could get a few extra inches out of him but I’ll be keeping a close eye on him just in case. “He gets bored of being held up.” Murphy still has some catching up to do to beat world record breaking cat Stewie from Nevada, USA, who measures a whopping 123cm (48.4ins) long.