14-year-old Bella, a moggie cat from Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, UK, has a way of making herself heard.
Registering a purr that measured 54.59 decibels, she achieved the noisy record for the world’s loudest purr by a domestic cat (living). To put this into context, that’s similar to the sound of a kettle boiling and not too far off the sound of your washing machine.
According to her owner, Nicole Spink, Bella’s unique talent comes quite naturally: “She purrs all day long! If there’s food around, or cuddles, she always purrs.
“Also when watching TV – she likes to be loud with television. My late husband used to always moan about the sound of her purr blocking the sound of the TV in the evenings.”
In fact, Bella purrs even in the most unexpected places, like the vet’s office: “Some vets have made comments about how she is the only cat they’ve ever had purr in there.”
The Spink family has always suspected that Bella might have the world’s loudest purr: “Friends and family always notice Bella’s loud purr, everyone comments ‘what’s that loud noise? Oh, it’s the cat’. It’s just Bella being happy!”
One day, whilst browsing at Guinness World Records book, Nicole and her daughter decided to test their theory. They downloaded an app on their phone which recorded and measured Bella’s purr, proving them right!
Of course, while an app can give you an indication of the purr's sound level, you need a sound engineer to help you measure it as accurately as possible.
On the day of the official attempt, Nicole was afraid that Bella wouldn’t perform: “She’s a stubborn little old lady and she does how she pleases. It is very much Queen Bella’s world.”
Thankfully, as soon as she’d been fed a bowl of her favourite food, Bella was ready to start her attempt, looking like the cat that got the cream.
“I fed her a bowl of WHISKAS®,” Nicole told us, “and then, I brought her into the room, laid her in her bed and she started purring, just like that!”
As you can tell, Bella is all about the food.
According to Nicole: “She purrs so loud when she has a bowl of WHISKAS® in front of her. As soon as she sees the package, she just runs to her bowl.”
In fact, a typical day in Bella’s life mainly consists of three things – food, sleep, and cuddles: “Bella will wake up in my bed, she always wakes me up early and asks for her food. She just loves her WHISKAS® food, that’s how she gets ready for the day.
“Then she’ll ask my kids or anyone else who comes into the house for more food. Then she will sleep, and then she’ll want more food and cuddles.
“Food and sleep is pretty much her life!”
Being quite “lazy”, as Nicole describes her, Bella is not much of an adventurer:
“Technically she’s an outdoor cat, she has a cat flap and all. But as she’s getting older, she goes outside less and less. She might venture into the garden, smell the flowers, but nothing further than that really.”
Bella is very friendly, she’s also very lazy, she’s happy to just lay on the sofa and eat food all day long.
She may be the queen of the house, but she’s not the only cat in the Spink family.
“I’ve got another cat called Lola, he’s quite a scared cat, he’s pretty much scared of everything around him and likes to hide.
“Bella is much more outgoing, anyone comes to the front door, Bella’s there, straight away.”
Bella's record-breaking purr was recorded and measured by independent specialist sound engineers, and approved by our official Adjudicator, Dave Wilson.
As per the certified instructions, the sound level meter used for the attempt was kept at a one-metre distance from Bella, as well as one-metre distance from the ground.
Nicole was proud of Bella and very excited to share the news with her kids: “They will be so happy when they hear the news, they’ve been saying to everyone how loud their cat is!”
This record title means a lot to both Nicole and her kids: “I used to always read the Guinness World Records book, I always got it as a present every Christmas, and I do the same with my kids.
“I think the record certificate is going to have a very prominent place in the house. We’ll need to decide which kid’s photos to take down first…”
We wish Bella the best – she really is the cat’s pyjamas!
Even though Bella holds the record for the loudest purr by a domestic cat (living), the record title for the loudest purr by a domestic cat ever still belongs to two other cats, Smokey and Merlin.
In 2011, Smokey, owned by Lucinda Ruth Adams in Northampton, UK, was recorded purring at the astounding noise level of 67.8 dB, a full 13.21 louder than Bella.
Four years later, she was equaled by Merlin, owned by Tracy Westwood in Devon, UK – and they are still record co-holders to this day.
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