Barivel

Barivel is a Maine Coon from Vigevano in northern Italy who was measured by Guinness World Records in May 2018 at 120 centimetres — just under four feet — from nose to the tip of his tail, making him the longest living domestic cat in the world.

His name is a piece of Milanese dialect meaning, roughly, a joker or a layabout, which his owners Cinzia Tinnirello and Edgar Scandurra chose because of his relaxed and faintly comic disposition. Photographs of Barivel being carried tend to show a great deal of cat hanging in every direction, and he is regularly described in the Italian press as looking less like a pet than like a piece of luggage.

Maine Coons are the largest of the common domestic breeds — a rugged, semi-longhaired working cat from the north-eastern United States, built for cold winters with a dense water-resistant coat, tufted snowshoe paws and heavy bone. Males routinely reach 6 to 8 kilograms and the breed grows slowly, often not reaching full size until three or four years old. Barivel sits at the extreme end of an already long-bodied breed.

His owners have been notably careful about how his celebrity is handled. Barivel is walked on a harness, taken to a groomer regularly for the coat maintenance a cat of that size cannot manage alone, and has been used by his family to raise awareness about the health screening Maine Coons need — the breed carries a well-documented predisposition to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and hip dysplasia, and responsible breeders screen for both. It is a considerably healthier version of pet celebrity than the record books have historically encouraged.