The supersized, Virginia shelter cat named Patches, whose story went viral, is inspiring humans around the world in his so-far-so-good journey of weight loss, which adopter Kay Ford shares with the world on the Facebook page Patches’ Journey.

As of the third week of June, Patches had lost almost 10 percent of his body weight: He weighed in at 36.16 pounds, a few weeks after his adoption at 40.3 pounds. More than 35,000 followers cheer on the kitty, and many have sent messages to Kay about how Patches has encouraged them to get in shape. The cat is cooperative about his diet plan — not that he has a choice, jokes Kay, who is using Patches’ online platform to advocate for cat adoption.

“He’s absolutely wonderful,” she says. “There is such a change in him. You can really see the difference. … It’s just incredibly gratifying.”