Flossie

Flossie is a British domestic shorthaired tortoiseshell cat born on 29 December 1995, whose extraordinarily long life was recognised in November 2022 when Guinness World Records confirmed her as the oldest living cat in the world. At the time of the record she was 26 years and 316 days old — the rough equivalent of about 120 in human terms — a figure that put her among a tiny handful of documented cats to approach such an age.

Her beginnings were far from pampered. Flossie started out among a colony of cats living near St Helens Hospital in Merseyside, in the north of England, and was taken in as a young cat by hospital staff. Over the decades that followed she passed through the hands of a succession of caretakers within the same family, outliving more than one of them, before eventually coming into the care of the UK charity Cats Protection. In 2022 the charity arranged for her to be rehomed with a new owner, Victoria Green, in Orpington on the southern edge of London.

By the time of her record Flossie was deaf and had limited sight, but she was reported to be otherwise in good health and still very much enjoying a fuss and a warm lap. Cats Protection used her story to make a gentle point that resonated with owners everywhere: that older cats, even those with the wear and tear of great age, can make wonderful and rewarding companions, and that a long, well-loved life indoors is something many cats can be given with steady, attentive care.