Woman leaves cat with mum for a month and is gobsmacked when she returns

A woman who left her cat with their mum for a month was stunned when she returned to find her pet had changed massively. Lina Redford left the Abyssinian cat, Sinbad, with while she took an artist's residency. During this time the cat underwent some lifestyle changes which made a noticeable difference by the time Lina returned.

Lina has since shared what happened to her feline friend. The changes to the cat left her speechless. Lina's mother had animals of her own who were "spoiled" well with nice toys and treats. But it was the treats which concerned Lina, who spoke to Newsweek about the shocking change to her beloved pet.

She said: "I travelled to Prague, where my mum lives, and I stayed there for two weeks until Sinbad got accustomed to the changes. Of course, I was sad leaving him for so long, but I wasn't nervous.

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"I couldn't believe that my hyperactive cat managed to get that fat." It seems Sinbad's dramatic weight loss is down to her mum's experimentation with the cat's food.

She continued: "My mum, in a message, said, 'I was testing new food brands and flavours, but he was eating everything okay, except for the rabbit..."

Before being dropped off at her mother's home in Prague, Sinbad weighed around 12 pounds. After her trip, Lina says the cat now weighs 14.7 pounds.

Lina explained what happened in more detail in the comments of a now-viral Instagram post.

She wrote: "How it happened: my mum has two lovely Bengals, who know their limits and I left my cat with her while I was away, but he doesn’t know his limit neither he understood that he couldn’t steal food from Bengals."

Members of the public were quick to share their thoughts on the matter.

One person wrote: "Oh no. This would make me so mad. You trusted them with your cat and they abused it. That cat is probably so uncomfortable I hope he lost the weight."

Another added: "I would be absolutely furious."

A third shared: "How does one manage to get such an athletic breed to fatten up like this like I just can’t fathom how an Abyssinian ended up like this."

Sinbad has since lost the weight put on during his time with Lina's mother.

The artist shared: "She felt like she overdid it with Sinbad, but she tried to give him more exercises and made him run upstairs and downstairs to lose weight."