Published Feb 14, 2026
Guinness World Records
The oldest cats most of us will ever have probably make it to around 18-ish, and maybe early 20s at the most. I myself have a “super senior” cat turning 18 this year, and G.G. looks and acts quite geriatric.
But across the Atlantic Ocean from the U.S., a British tortoiseshell cat named Flossie says: “Hold my beer!”
This extraordinary cat recently celebrated her 30th birthday – yes, 30 years old, as of December 29, 2025. With an average feline lifespan of 14 to 20 years for an indoor pet, cats living well into their 20s, let alone reaching 30s, is a wonder of nature! According to our chart that estimates a cat’s age compared to human years, the oldest category we have is a cat age of 15 to 25, which translates to about 76 to 116 in human years. So, a 30-year-old cat would easily be at least 122 years old – the oldest recorded age for a human, Jeanne Calment, a French woman who died in 1997.
In other words, at three decades old, Flossie is one elderly pussycat. We have no trouble believing this amazing cat is the oldest housecat on the planet. However, we should add the disclaimer that Flossie is the oldest “known” living cat. I suppose it’s possible there’s an unreported cat out there that is 31 or older, and we just don’t know about it. However, based on known cats, Guinness World Records confirmed Flossie’s oldest-cat status in 2022. Turning 30, Flossie has broken her own record a few years later.
“I’m not sharing my home with the oldest cat; I feel like this is her home and I’m encroaching on her space,” Flossie’s mom, Vicki Green, tells Guinness World Records in this Instagram video with 122K likes. “I don’t think I treat her any differently because she’s broken a world record. I adopted her on the basis that this is her retirement home, and she gets whatever she wants.
Guinness World Records
“So I want to make sure her last years are the best that she’s had,” Vicki continues. “I just want to make sure she’s having a good life.”
The video ends with a purring sound as Flossie’s human holds her. Aaww!
In January 2024, Vicki wrote an article for The Guardian about how she has a cat who is the same age as her: 27, at the time of writing. Flossie was just a few weeks shy of 27 when Guinness World Records recognized her. Vicki had lost her beloved childhood cat, Honeybun, and Vicki was heartbroken. Remembering how Honeybun was especially sweet during her last years as an elderly cat, Vicki made a pledge to herself to adopt senior cats when she got her own place.
After Vicki got her own flat in London, she was searching for an old cat to adopt and found Flossie through a rescue in the UK called Cats Protection. The cat was listed as age 27 and Vicki thought it was a mistake; surely, she thought, the correct age is 17. But, no: Vicki contacted the rescue, and learned that this cat was indeed an unbelievable 27 years old! Vicki gladly adopted Flossie, thinking the tortie would have only a few months left to live. But, when Vicki wrote the essay, she had owned Flossie for more than a year.
Cats Protection worked with historical veterinarian records to verify Flossie’s date of birth in 1995. The cat is said to have been born in a feral colony in Merseyside, England, and she went through several owners like a car after being rescued as a kitten. What a wonderful life for a kitten born in unfortunate circumstances, and previous owners who gave up Flossie sure missed out on a gem of a cat!
Guinness World Records
Flossie is in fairly good shape for a cat this old, although she is understandably deaf and has lost some eyesight. But, she is easy to care for, Vicki says.
A tortoiseshell cat – who is almost always female, and has a mixture of black and orange (or muted gray and cream) on her coat – doesn’t have an unusually long lifespan in the genes: 13 to 17 years or more on average. But, torties are known for being feisty girls, with the funny term “tortitude” describing their strong purrsonalities. Being a tortie, sometimes called the divas of the cat world, Flossie’s spirited nature maybe played a role in her longevity.
We and Vicki are grateful for Flossie’s long life, and it gives us hope for more precious years with our furbabies than Mother Nature usually allows. May this British tortie make it to her 31st birthday!
“The biggest difficulty is dealing with the fact that there may soon come a time when she passes,” Vicki says in the essay. “I’m in denial about that. I look at her and just think she doesn’t look old at all. Yet who knows? She could be well on her way to becoming the oldest cat in history.”
That cat – Creme Puff, who died in 2005 – lived for 38 years and three days.
“Though even if she doesn’t break the current record … at least I’ll know she had a great retirement home,” Vicki says.
