Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DEARLY DEPAWTED
‘World’s oldest cat’ dead at 31
A CAT thought to be the oldest in the world has died, aged 31.
Rubble had lived with owner Michele Heritage since the late 1980s. She got him as a kitten on her 20th birthday.
The fluffy Maine Coon, who was the equivalent of nearly 150 human years, became the world’s oldest feline in May last year.
But his health started to fail shortly after his 31st birthday.
Heartbroken Michele, 52, put
Rubble’s longevity down to the fact she pampered him like a child.
She said: “Rubble would have been 32 in May so it was such an achievement.
“He was an amazing companion that I had the pleasure to live with for such a long time.” Michele added: “We never went down the Guinness Book of Records route.
“I didn’t want to do that, given his age. The record wasn’t of interest to us but he grew old very quickly towards the end.
“I said to my husband at Christmas that I think it would be last we spend with Rubble.
“He had started to stop eating and only drank water.
“He was a creature of habit, had his favourite places to sleep and liked his food so when that stopped happening, we knew.”
Michele, of Exeter, Devon, recalled how she first met Rubble on her 20th birthday in May 1988.
She said: “I had just left home and was lonely living on my own so got him in as a kitten.
“I have always treated Rubble like a child.
“I don’t have any children and I had another cat called Meg, who passed at the age of 25.
“If you care about something, no matter what it is, it does last.”
If Rubble’s long life could be certified, he would beat the previous record held by Scooter, a Siamese cat living in Texas.
He was named the world’s oldest cat by Guinness World Records when he turned 30 in 2016, but died later that year.
The oldest cat ever to have lived, according to the record books, was a female puss called Creme Puff.
She was born in August 1967 and died in 2005 – 38 years later. Like Scooter, she was also from Texas.
The average cat will live for around 16 years.