'Feline' Old: Flossie Becomes World's Oldest Cat

Guinness World Records named Flossie as the world's oldest cat roughly a month before her 27th birthday.
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Guinness World Records gave one British cat owner the “purr-fect” gift for her furry friend just ahead of the pet’s 27th birthday.

Flossie, who the record-keeping company noted in a tweet Wednesday is 26 years and 329 days old, has been deemed the world’s oldest living cat, according to a press release.

The black and brown British feline is roughly 120 years old in human years. She is a playful, warm and curious cat in good health, although she has difficulty seeing and is deaf.

Vicki Green, Flossie’s owner in Orpington, England, told the company that the pet “never turns her nose up at the chance of a good meal” and is affectionate despite her age.

“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,” Green said.

Flossie, who was born in December 1995, began her life hanging around “a colony of cats” at a hospital in England’s Merseyside county.

A hospital employee decided to house her for 10 years before the person died. The employee’s sister cared for her for the next 14 years until her death, according to the record-keeping company.

That woman’s son then took her for three years before parting ways with the feline and giving her to a branch of the U.K. cat welfare charity Cats Protection.

Naomi Rosling, branch coordinator at Cats Protection, said the group was “flabbergasted” when it discovered vet records that revealed Flossie’s age.

Green would later adopt Flossie, who she said was loud and a “bit confused” in the first days inside her new home.

Flossie, however, has adjusted to the new setting, which Green said makes her happy.

“I’ve always wanted to give older cats a comfortable later life,” Green said.

“She sometimes misses her litter box or needs help grooming herself, but I can help with all of that. We’re in this together.”

Flossie’s record-holding nine lives may have currently surpassed every living cat on the planet but she is still over 10 years away from the oldest recorded cat who has ever pawed the earth, Guinness World Records noted.

Creme Puff, a cat from Texas, lived 38 years and three days between August 1967 and August 2005.

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