Record Holder
Nutmeg
c.1985–2017
The Tyneside stray who was taken in as an adult cat and lived to a reported 31 or 32 — proof that even a rough-starting rescue can enjoy an extraordinarily long life in the right home.
- Owner
- Liz and Ian Finlay
- Years
- c.1985–2017
- Known for
- Record Holder
Nutmeg was a tabby who arrived as a stray in the garden of Liz and Ian Finlay in North East England in the early 1990s, already a grown cat, and was taken in and given a home. Working from his estimated age at the time, his family and local vets reckoned he was born around 1985, which by 2017 made him a reported 31 to 32 years old — one of the oldest cats in Britain.
As a former stray his exact birth date could never be certain, so accounts of his age vary by a year or so, but there was no doubting his seniority. Nutmeg weathered serious health scares in his final years, including a stroke, and each time rallied to the surprise of the vets who treated him, becoming something of a local celebrity for his sheer resilience.
He died in 2017 after a final decline. Nutmeg's story is a favourite among rescue advocates precisely because he did not start life as a pampered pedigree: he was an unknown adult cat who wandered in from the cold and, given warmth, food and care, went on to live a life longer than almost any cat on record.
Further reading: Nutmeg on Wikipedia