Everyone Thinks This Enormous 24-Pound Cat Is a Lion, and He’s Still Growing

A British family’s pet cat is so huge people often mistake him for a lion, and he’s still growing.

Murphy the Maine Coon weighs 24.3 pounds (11 kg)  and measures a whopping 3.41 feet (104 cm) from nose to tail, a whisker away from a world record. And because Murphy is only 12 months old, he still has growing to do in his home in Worcester, England.

Owner Sareeta Brewin, 46, says she spends a fortune feeding Murphy as he munches through 60 pounds (approx. $75) worth of dry food every month. She says people often mistake him for a dog or even a lion. The proud owner also often gets tagged in posts of big cat sightings across Worcestershire.

Brewin, a mom of three who works as a product manager in medical devices, said they got Murphy in November 2021.

“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,” she said. “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 ask, ‘Is that a lion?’ He is very feline looking.”

On Christmas 2021, Murphy chewed his way through 12 sets of festive lights and the family’s iPhone cables, which cost a total of 300 pounds (approx. $365) to replace.

Brewin said: “We call him Thor because he’s very handsome but he is quite dim. He does eat a fair bit … 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.

“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’re 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.”

Brewin said she’ll be keeping an extra close eye on Murphy’s length in the coming years to see if he can break the record.

“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,” she said. “He gets bored of being held up.”

Murphy still has some catching up to do to beat the world record of the U.S. cat Mymains Steward Gilligan (or Stewie) from Nevada, who measures a whopping 48.4 inches (123 cm) long.