Tiddles

Tiddles was the celebrated resident cat of Paddington Station in London, where he lived from 1970 until 1983 in the ladies' lavatory, doted on by the attendants and a parade of admiring travellers. Arriving as a tiny stray kitten, Tiddles became such a beloved fixture of the great Victorian terminus that passengers would go out of their way to visit and feed him — and feed him they did. Indulged with treats including chicken, lamb's tongues, rabbit and steak kept in his very own refrigerator, Tiddles swelled to an enormous size, weighing in at around 30 pounds (over 13 kg) and earning fame as one of Britain's fattest cats. He won the title of "London Fat Cat Champion" and became a genuine tourist attraction in his own right. While his ballooning waistline would raise eyebrows among today's vets, Tiddles embodied a long and affectionate British tradition of railway-station cats kept for company and for keeping the mice down — and few were ever loved quite so generously, or so fattening-ly, as the great cat of Paddington.