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Does it turn girls off to find out that a guy has a morbidly obese cat?

Answer Wiki

Yes.  Given that an owner is directly responsible for his cat's weight, it is seen as an indicator that the guy will not be able to take care of a relationship and/or his children.
15 Answers
Andrew Chen
Andrew Chen, @andrewchen on twitter.
3.1k Views
My hypothesis would be yes, girls do not like fatass cats.

However, the above answer, like the other ones, is completely subjective. The rest of this answer describes what a possibly more scientific method to answer this question.

Experiment setup
A low-friction way to gather data on this would be via dating site profiles, where identical accounts are set up but with different photos featuring different people and different shaped/sized cats.

Test permutations
Ideally, we would find a fatass cat and take a picture of an average-looking man holding her. Then we would alternate with photos of average-sized cats as well. We should also try different guys holding the cats, to collect data on that variable as well.

Evaluating response rate and type
After setting up these profiles, we would then evaluate the response rate for messages, and see how things compared. The messages would need to be classified as positive, neutral, and negative.

We would then rank the different permutations based on positive and negative response rate, and create a color-coded grid with response rates in each cell.

For example, we could do something like this:


Based on this grid, I suspect we would find that the fatass cat is a turnoff, but this would be a method to collect the data.

Addendum
I have included some possible templates for fatass cats and normal-sized cats below, for inspiration.

Example 1: Fatass cat


Example 2: Fatass cat

Example 3: Normal-sized cat

Example 4: Normal-sized cat

Bonus cat:
Shannon Larson
Shannon Larson, had 8 dogs, 14 cats, 3 ponies, 4 horses, 2 pigs, 2 goats, 1 guinea pig, 2 pyg...
In many cases, yes.

There are some women who would find owning any cat a turn-off. The remainder of women like cats (or at least are ambivalent), so they often don't appreciate seeing one mistreated.

Such an obvious sign of neglect indicates that he is not a responsible man. He does not take his cat's health seriously. The cat is morbidly obese because he doesn't ration its food, even when he sees the cat putting on weight. This makes him seem lazy, callous, and inattentive - extremely unattractive qualities in a man.

On the other hand, there are some women who would find a rolly-polly, morbidly obese cat cute. However, I'm not sure that this is the kind of girl you'd want to date.
Samantha Wolov
Samantha Wolov, HUGE animal lover, with many, many pets.
1.2k Views
A little, yes.

User is right, if you can't look after a pet properly, how can you be trusted to care for a relationship?  I'll go one step beyond that.  If someone knows s/he wants children, how can they trust you to take care of them?  We all know someone who is fun to hang out with, and a decent friend, but under no circumstances would you leave your child with them.  Don't be that guy.

Allowing an animal to become obese and unhealthy does show a lack of insight into the needs of animals, which in turn can be interpreted as a lack of insight into the needs of others, especially a partner or child.  Having said that, I don't think it's at all fair to call someone who does this callous.  Lazy, maybe, but I highly doubt there's malicious intent behind something like this.  It just happens.  I could absolutely imagine a scenario where someone decides to adopt a cat with the best of intentions, but due to work or other factors, they're never actually around to monitor or care for the cat, who maybe gets bored, and then does nothing but eat.  It happens. 

I think a better judge of character isn't whether or not the cat is obese, but what steps, if any, the owner ("parent") is taking to fix it, and how they feel about it.  Will I judge you for having an obese cat?  Maybe a little.  But I'll judge you a lot more harshly if you seem apathetic to the fact that your cat is obese, and I'll give you more credit if you come forward, admit something went wrong, and you're trying to fix it.
Amy Hansen
Amy Hansen, inspired and curious
454 Views
Only if they have insufficient confidence and are victims to absurd thin-obsessed social trends. 

Womens' aversion to men with obese cats stems from a subconscious disgust of plus-sized figures. They desire to to look dainty as opposed to rotund and plump. Women idolize thinness as a moral virtue that transcends their own species. They admire svelte people, but also svelte animals.   

The modern image of femininity emphasizes smallness. Women, in general, want their hips, butt, and thighs to look smaller. They are supposed to be no larger than a size 6 and weigh no more than 120 pounds. Accepting one's body often means actively rejecting the implications of a huge number of stimuli force-fed to them from the media. 

If a woman is uncomfortable with her size--and one need only look at the revenues of the diet industry and the prevalence of plastic surgery to know the extent of American body dissatisfaction--she will generally not be attracted to men with obese cats. 

However, on a personal note, I think that dating men with obese cats has made me more confident, and I would highly recommend it. It's novel and refreshing to be able to embrace large-sized feline figures without judgment.
Kim Raymoure
Kim Raymoure
307 Views
I agree with others where a morbidly obese cat is concerned.

However, most fat cats aren't morbidly obese.  Most of them are chubby from being spoiled.

A fat cat indicates to me a person who is indulgent when a cute creature asks them for something they want.  Whether or not we are physically cute, most girls learn how to be cute at a very early age, sometimes even from a feline teacher.  As an opportunist, I feel this person (owner of an indulged fat cat, not the owner of a morbidly obese cat) is worthy of a date!
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