Princess Chunky is a 44-pound cat who is just two pounds away from the 1987 Guinness World Record for overweight cats. This was confirmed by Dennis Green who works at the Philadelphia Free Library. She said that the cat-weight record was held by 46-pound, 151/4-ounce Himmy of Australia back in 1987.

Camden County Animal Control Officer Jim McCleery got the call last Friday: "We picked him up and I knew from the get-go it wouldn't fit in the regular cat carrier, so we had to put him in a dog carrier . . . it was a big cat, the biggest one this year," said McCleery.

She was initially called "Captain Chunk". But they soon realized it was actually a female and changed it into "Princess Chunk." She is currently taken care of by volunteer Deborah Wright who began an exercise program with the cat and as well as a new diet consisting of wet and dry cat food. The orange-white, short-haired domestic cat is estimated to be about 4 years-old. Weighing it was out of the ordinary as well because shelter workers realized that the cat scale couldn't hold Chunky.

The veterinarians at the Camden County Animal Shelter will perform some tests to find out whether Chunky is so fat due to a thyroid condition or diabetes.

Her owner hasn’t showed up yet so Chunky is very likely to be adopted. Several requests have already been received. Her health appears to be in a good state and the veterinarians are of the opinion that she had been well taken care of by her formal owner.