If you think you've got McDonald's on the brain, just imagine what it was like for a poor cat who lived off the chain's fast food burgers and fries for more than a year, before the SPCA came in to rescue him.
Frankie the Cat, who took McDonald's odious "I'm lovin' it!" slogan a bit too far, was so addicted to the chain's products that he refused to eat anything else after being saved from a lifetime of being a fatty tabby.
"Frankie," a black-and-white tom, was given his adorable moniker by McDonald's staff and customers in a Franklin (New Zealand's Hamilton suburb) store where the feline was abandoned as a kitten by tenants leaving a nearby apartment.
According to Stuff, Frankie the Cat would eat chicken nuggets, pieces of beef and anything else he could beg off of passing customers in the parking lot of the McDonald's.
Frankie's fast-food diet was becoming an issue, though, as McDonald's staff began noticing the cat's health was deteriorating over the more than a year he was in residence there.
Jessica Watson, a Waikato SPCA field officer, is a regular customer of the McDonald's in question and decided to take Frankie the Cat with her in order to find him a family to adopt him. And, hopefully, feed him properly.
"I estimate he has lived in the McDonald's carpark for 12 to 18 months," Watson said.
"Everyone knew to keep an eye out for him," Watson continued. "You would go through the drive-through and ask for a burger for you and an extra patty for Frankie. He would watch you and trot after the car, wait until you stopped the car and then you would toss him the meat. It was his little routine."
Watson knew there was something wrong with the McDonald's cat when she discovered Frankie was having trouble closing his eyelids, was exhibiting a swollen face and had matted fur.
"He wasn't overweight," Watson said, "but McDonald's wouldn't meet the nutritional requirements for a cat. They need very high levels of protein and I wouldn't think takeaways would provide that."
Watson says it took time to wean Frankie off his McDonald's addiction, claiming she would lay cat food down for him with the result of his shying away.
"[H]e would give me a look like, 'What is that?' " Watson said. Things got so rough, in fact, that Watson actually considered going back to McDonald's just to get Frankie a burger so he would eat.
It took months for Frankie to start eating a regular cat diet of water and "cat biscuits." No more fries, burgers and soda for him, and he's "now clear-eyed and shiny-coated," Stuff reports.
"He's a big, and healthy, eater," Watson said.
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