They say cats have nine lives, but a feline named Flossie might have even more than that: at 26, she’s far outlived the average life expectancy — and now, she’s been declared the official oldest cat in the world!
Flossie is just shy of her 27th birthday, and at the ripe old age of 26 years and 316 days — the equivalent of 120 human years — Flossie was officially named the oldest living cat by Guinness World Records.
Flossie, a brown-and-black-coated cat who lives with her owner Vicki Green in England, is deaf and has poor sight, but is otherwise still in good health despite her advanced age, and still has a healthy appetite.
“She never turns her nose up at the chance of a good meal,” Vicki told Guinness World Records.
Despite her impressively long life, things haven’t always been easy: Flossie has been in and out of different homes over the decades and just this year found herself homeless.
According to Guinness, Flossey was a stray who lived in a colony of cats near a hospital, and in 1995 was adopted by one of the employees.
After ten years in that happy home, Flossie’s owner passed away, and she was taken in by the owner’s sister, whom she lived with for another 14 years, until that owner also passed away.
At 24 years old, Flossie was taken in by the previous owner’s son, who cared for her for three years, until he found himself unable to care for the cat, and handed her over to Cats Protection, a UK cat charity.
The charity was then reportedly “flabbergasted” after checking Flossie’s vet records and discovering she was nearly 27 years old.
Because older cats often have a difficult time getting adopted, it seemed that Flossie would spend the rest of her life at Cats Protection. But Vicki, an Executive Assistant at the charity with experience with senior cats, decided to step in and give Flossie a home.
“She was loud for the first few nights because she can’t see in the dark and was a bit confused in her new surroundings, but she sleeps through the night now, snuggled on the bed with me,” she told Guinness World Records.
“Our new life together already feels like home for Flossie, which makes me so happy.”
It was only later that she realized Flossie could actually be the oldest cat in the world, and reached out to Guinness to verify the record: “I knew from the start that Flossie was a special cat, but I didn’t imagine I’d share my home with a world record holder.”
The news comes not long after Guinness declared the world’s official oldest living dog: 22-year-old Chihuahua mix Gino.
While Flossie is the oldest living cat, she still has ways to go before setting the all-time record: the oldest cat in recorded history is Creme Puff, who lived a whopping 38 years, from 1967 to 2005.
Congratulations to Flossie on becoming the world’s oldest cat! Wishing her a very happy 27th birthday and many great years to come!
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