Record Holder
Puss
1903–1939
A Devon tabby said to have died the day after his 36th birthday — for decades the archetypal 'oldest cat that ever lived'.
- Owner
- Mrs Holway, Devon
- Years
- 1903–1939
- Known for
- Record Holder
Puss was a tabby cat from Clayhidon in Devon, England, whose owner recorded him as having been born on 28 November 1903 and dying on 29 November 1939 — the day after what would have been his thirty-sixth birthday. That reported age made him, for much of the twentieth century, the benchmark against which every long-lived cat was measured, and he held a place in early editions of the record books as the oldest domestic cat on record.
As with many claims from before the era of microchips and veterinary paperwork, Puss's exact age rests on his family's own account rather than documentary proof, and modern record-keepers treat such historical figures with due caution. But the story endured because it captured something people wanted to believe about a well-loved cat: that with warmth, food and care an ordinary tabby might stretch a normal fifteen-or-so-year lifespan into something extraordinary.
Later verified record-holders — cats like Creme Puff, documented to thirty-eight — eventually eclipsed him, but Puss remains a fond fixture in the folklore of remarkably old cats, the name people reached for whenever the question 'how old can a cat get?' came up.