At 26 years and 329 days, Flossie is not only almost as old as her 27-year old owner, she has also officially been recognised as the oldest living cat in the world.
Nearing 27, the British cat residing in Orpington, south London was crowned the oldest in the world by the Guinness Book of Records on Thursday. Flossie is deaf and her sight is deteriorating, but according to her owner Vicki Green, "that doesn't seem to bother her," and she is still in good health overall.
"I knew from the start that Flossie is a special cat, but I didn't think I would share my home with a world record holder," Green said. Flossie has a unique brown and black coloured fur, parting in a straight line across the middle of her face.
Flossie's story
From birth, Flossie roamed free as a young stray and lived in a colony of young kittens next to a hospital. Some hospital workers took pity on the kitties and decided to each adopt one in December 1995, which is when she was adopted by a staff member and lived there surrounded by love until the owner passed away ten years later.
Flossie getting petted by her new owner. Credit: Guinness World Records
She was then taken in by her previous owner’s sister, but she too passed away 14 years later, leaving the cat homelesss at the age of 24. Soon, she was taken in by her previous owner's son, where she lived for three years, but his personal situation led him to entrust his cat to volunteers at Cats Protection, the UK’s leading cat welfare charity.
This is when the journey to confirm Flossie’s age and combined record began, in August 2022. "We were flabbergasted when we saw that Flossie's vet records showed her to be 27 years old," Naomi Rosling, who works for the animal welfare organisation, said. This is roughly the feline equivalent of at least 120 human years.
Before too long, a match was made with a possible new owner, Green, and Flossie started a new, happy chapter at her late stage in life.
One more record to go
The editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, Craig Glenday, compared the cat to Jeanne Calment, the French woman who, at 122 years and 164 days, is considered the oldest person to have ever lived.
However, to hold the record of the oldest living cat in global history, Flossie still has a long time to go, as that record is currently held by Creme Puff, an American cat who lived to be 38 years and three days old.
As Flossie spends most of her day enjoying big bowls of food and napping alongside her owner in het favourite blanket, hanging around for another 11 years doesn't seem like the worst thing in the world.
