Until I get my book finished around July 4 (God bless America!), you’ll have to live largely on persiflage. Here’s some.
According to the BBC Newsbeat, the world’s oldest cat, a tortoiseshell named Poppie, has died at her home in Bournemouth, England, She was 24.
Here’s a recent photo of Poppie her birthday party (the cake looks like a couple cans of wet food), and I must say that the cat looks aged. But she was of course well loved.
The tortoiseshell was born in February 1990 and was officially recognised by Guinness World Records in May.
Poppy, who has lived through five British prime ministers lived with her owners Jacqui West and her two sons Joe and Toby at their home in Bournemouth on the south coast of England.
“We knew she was old but it’s still very upsetting,” said Jacqui.
Here’s a soupçon of information:
The average age for a cat is 15.
Experts generally agree that the first two years of a cat’s life are equal to 25 human years. After that, every three months is said to be a year.
This theory would make Poppy 114 in cat years.
But Poppie didn’t come near the longevity record for felids, which is held by a Texas cat named Creme Puff, who died in 2005, aged 38 years and 3 days! According to the formula above, that would make Creme Puff the human equivalent of a 169-year old.
I posted about Creme Puff last year (his owner, Jake Perry, produced many old cats, attributing their longevity to a diet of asparagus bacon and eggs). but also about a living cat, Wadsworth, who was 27 in March, 2013. I wonder what happened to him?
I’ll repost the video about crusty old Jake Perry and his superannuated cats. As I said at the time:
Here’s a 9.5-minute video of Jake Perry and some of his many his cats. It’s lovely—watch it! You can see Perry cooking breakfast for the cats; “Granpa”, a Sphynx, makes an appearance [he lived to 34!]; and record-holder Creme Puff finally shows up at 7:23, looking very good for 35!
h/t: Steve
Here’s hoping that Baihu, Hili, Jerry Coyne (Felid), Merlyn, Butter, and the rest — yes, even Fitness — all beat the records….
b&
Put in a vote for my Izzy! 14 going on 15, still in pretty solid health.
My Freddie, too, 14 this month.
Hey, maybe we need a cat longevity prayer?? (Just kidding!!)
Nah…no need for prayers. Just good food, regular checkups with Teh Ebil Doktor, lots of belly rubs, lots of play time, cat naps with cat….
b&
We have friends who insist their outdoor Cleo made it into her early 20s because there weren’t regular checkups. Funny, how Cleo didn’t like strangers but sidled up to us.
My buds Ozzie made it to 22 and passed the day her manservant returned from holidays. She seemed fine the day before. Wandered up when called as usual and jumped in my lap for a visit after eating.
Poppie had a good life. My condolences.
“Love to eat them mousies,
Mousies what I love to eat.
Bite they little heads of,
Nibble on they tiny feet.”
Good try, but maybe go easy on the socipathy. LOL!
Wow, twice this year I’ve had the dubious pleasure of hearing one of my favorite silly ditties, and both times on this wonderful site;-)
Read out of order. Now I see that this was a brilliant response to the call for a kitteh longevity prayer;-)
Awwwww…She will be missed.
My greyish/camelhair tortoiseshell, Timba (Timbuktu), lived to 6 weeks shy of 23.
One of my kittehs lived from 1986 to 2008. She was 22+ when she passed. A wonderful beast. She was deaf for the last 5 years and had dementia for about the last year; but her sweet disposition never changed. She declined rapidly over the last 6 months and precipitously on the last 1-2 days before I helped her over the line (with a caring vet).
They do seem to get deaf and yowl into corners…My current one’s now 14 and having thyroid issues, and 12-yr-old pooch is going deaf, but still both very loveable. I do dread the days to come, though…
I remember reading about Creme Puff, but not here. My cat made it to 17, and she looked just a ratty as this cat did. She got to the point where she just didn’t have any meat on those bones, and passed on.
“Creme Puff” kinds of stories make me wonder if some sort of diet can really increase lifespan.
I suspect that a major cause of deaths in old age of animals are cancers, because they’re often discovered way too late and seldom treated- certainly not as effectively as in humans.
If that holds, any environment where most carcinogeneous substances and radiation can be avoided would substantially improve their longevity.
My name comes from a cat I had named Fraggle, black with a white patch on his chest. He was diagnosed with cancer and lived for another twenty months.
He passed when my wife and I were away on holiday, almost as if he chose his moment. The cattery were so apologetic when we came to collect his buddy, as if they had caused his demise.
That was eight years ago and I still miss the old codger. His vet is a wonderful vet who worked wonders and gave him those happy and relatively healthy 20 months.
Poppy, who has lived through five…
Lives?
…British prime ministers
Ah. Ok. I was about to ask, “24 years, but what epoch?”
They call Bournemouth God’s waiting room on the basis of the average age of the residents. It is appropriate that such a long lived cat came from there.
My friends have very long lived cats. One even overcame diabetes with, get this, a diet of that shitty cat food called Fancy Feast. I recommended it as a potential cure for humans but I don’t think anyone was interested.
Actually, Fancy Feast Classic line (pate) varieties are not all that bad, although the other types are (anything shredded or grilled not recommended). It’s high protein (first ingredients are real chicken, liver or beef for instance), grain free and, has no carrageenan in it. Overall, there are far worse choices to make. For those who aren’t able to afford high premium foods, it’s a decent choice.
A friend of mine lost her pussy a few years ago, she told me it was 30. I’ve no reason to doubt her. I have fat, toothless 15 year old, I hope she gets another 15.
My lovely Jezebel passed away last August, aged 22. She was a big ginger and white cat and lived up to her name. She had a thing about men!
Wow, nine years past the average.
That’s one amazing cat.
I’ll be house sitting for my uncle through the weekend. One of the perks is a great leg warmer who goes by the name Tom. He’s 18 years old and still patrols the farm and does somersaults on the grass when you pet him. I’m looking forward to a lot of quality time with the old boy.
It’s quite odd that there can be such outliers as the two 30-something cats mentioned in the text. The distribution of people’s cats ages sounds much more like a “normal” Normal distribution for ages.
So, either there’s something funny about the 30-something ages (one has to suspect such data, even though pointing the finger of suspicion isn’t polite), or Jake Perry knows something about looking after cats that other people don’t. In which case, I’m astonished that he’s not making a fortune selling it. It would be a big step forward in aging research, and from a species so evolutionarily close to us, it would be Big News in the CCN/ Faux/ Beeb sense of “news”.
He fed his cats asparagus? Sheesh, as if cat pee isn’t stinky enough to begin with.
+2 – cat pee+asparagus