The oldest Siamese cat on record that I have found is a seal point Siamese called ‘Sukoo’ who died in 1989 at 31-years-of-age in the south of England. That information comes from Dr Desmond Morris’s book Cat World.
The internet provides me with another 30-year-old Siamese cat named Scooter who was declared the oldest living cat by the Guinness World Records in early 2016. Scooter was born on March 26th 1986 and lived in Mansfield, Texas, USA with his owner Gail Floyd.
It is claimed, and I am sure you have heard, that pedigree cats do not normally live as long as non-pedigree cats. An interesting snippet of information about longevity is that neutered tom cats live three years longer on average than intact male cats. There are two purported reasons, (1) neutered males are less likely to get into damaging fights and (2) neutered cats are more resistant to infection. I am not sure why or even if the infection reason is true.
Scooter was born with his owner in attendance. They have never been apart. According to Guinness World Records he used to wake Gail in the morning at 6 am and at was the door when she returned from work. He died on April 8, 2016 aged 30 years.
The oldest Siamese cat is not as old as the oldest non-pedigree
The really exceptional long lived cats make it into their mid-30s. The current world record is Creme Puff from Austin, Texas, USA. Creme Puff lived to 38 years and 3 days (August 1967 – 6 August 2005). A tabby cat called ‘Puss’ lived from 1903 to 1939, 36-years-of-age. This is seven years longer than the dog record (as at 1996 – things change). ‘Ma’ a female tabby lives from 1923 to 1957, 34-years-of-age.
The oldest Siamese cat died achieving 30-years-of-age. This is exceptional and a bit surprising because the modern Siamese does not have a great reputation for longevity. Scooter is not what I call a ‘modern’ Siamese by which I mean rat faced and tailed and super slender. Maybe that helped as he has an old-style face and conformation.
Wow, I have a 22 tr old tabby, maybe she will hang in there a few more years
22 is exceptional. There are very few 22 year old domestic cats.
Such a beautiful Siamese. Looks like the one I had growing up. She only lived 17 years.
17 is very good too.
I don’t know much about the Siamese or any of the Oriental breeds, but I do think your observation about skull size is very interesting.
As just a casual observer, these breeds do seem to have become leaner, narrower & live shorter lives than they used to.
I always think the fuller head shape is more pleasing to the human eye & heart. Is that rounded shape what is called “Apple Headed”? I can’t help thinking of a feline brain being deformed in some way to grow within a very narrow space.
I think these older pusses are a delight & should be saluted once a year, honoured in some way?
We have lots of special days (usually internet inspired) I do think a Senior Animals Day, if not a Senior Cats Day would be a very good day to mark.
The breeders like to ‘refine’ nature. This translates to making the normal Siamese look like a rat and the Persian to have a face that looks like someone punched it. It is a strange world. There is no accounting for taste. The problem is that in breeding to extreme appearance you get the health wrong and both the Persian and Siamese have inherited health problems due to inbreeding.
I am a great believer in older cats. They make great companions. But I am out of step with the public. There may be a senior cat rescue on Facebook. Yes, a senior cat day sounds nice.
Amazing. Very interesting. Wouldn’t it be grand if all cats and dogs had such long lives? 💜
Yeh, we as human caretakers would have to go through less anguish as there would be less deaths. There’d be more pressure on reducing the cat population numbers though as there would be more cats.
Oh to reduce the human population with the same vigour, if not the bloodlust & cruel method some humans seek to reduce the feline population with.
Ah now there is a big, meaty debate. I’m in favor bigtime.