38-pound rescue cat Crumbs gets stuck in shoe rack while trying to escape from fat camp: ‘He caused a ruckus’

He was stuck between a rack and a hard place.

A fat cat’s attempt to escape a diet center backfired horribly after the flabby tabby got trapped in a shoe rack.

The feline, named Kroshik (Russian for “Crumbs”), was discovered by staff attempting to break out of the center in Perm, Russia, where he had been sentenced to a strict workout regimen and food rationing, Newsflash reported.

Photos show the corpulent cat — who weighs almost 38 pounds — wedged between the bars of the shoe shelf with his face stuffed in a bright blue Croc.

“Kroshik… he caused a ruckus and escaped today,” rehabilitation expert Ekaterina Bedakova wrote in a Sept. 11 Telegram post.

“He was extremely displeased when we found him disguised as slippers, but… after a portion of food, he mellowed out.”

It’s been a long road for Crumbs — named for his ability to hoover up food — who was first discovered a week ago in the basement of a Russian hospital.

Staffers had reportedly fed the portly pet a diet of cookies and soup, which caused him to balloon up to a scale-shattering 37.47 pounds — so heavy he couldn’t even walk.

For reference, most domestic cats should weigh around 10 pounds, health experts say — though size can vary depending on the breed.

“Kroshik’s story is an extremely rare case when someone loved a cat so much that they fed him to such a state,” a spokesperson for the Matroskin Shelter in Prem explained.

In an attempt to get Crumbs down to a normal weight, shelter employees put the mammoth feline on a pound-shedding pilgrimage that included a new diet and regular treadmill workouts.

For the latter exercise, they put the puss in a water tank to lessen the strain on his joints, as seen in photos of him reluctantly walking on the subermeged contraption.

Employees even shaved Crumbs’ tummy to make him easier to dry following his aquatic aerobics sessions.

Fortunately, vets are positive about Crumbs’ new routine. Under this new health regime, they predict that the plus-size couch-scratcher will lose between 70-50 grams per week.

In fact, Bedakova suggested that Crumbs’ ill-fated escape attempt was actually a good sign because it demonstrated that he’s a “very active guy.”