Rosie ‘the oldest cat in the world’ dies aged 33

Rosie became an indoor cat in her later years and her favourite pastimes were eating and sleeping.

She was particularly fond of napping by a window in Lila’s ground-floor flat and was fed Purina One cat food daily or she’d ‘kick up a fuss’.

Lila adopted Rosie after a cat rescue service approached her to say the kitten needed rehoming as her first owners realised their daughter was allergic.

Rosie’s mum was a grey rag doll – which gave Rosie her bushy squirrel tail – and her dad is believed to have been a ginger tom.

Speaking previously about her beloved pet, she said: ‘She’s quite a character.

‘Rosie sleeps by the window all day and, like clockwork, she will have some food and use the litter tray.

‘There’s no need for an alarm clock. All she does is eat, sleep, use the litter tray and repeat.

‘I’ll miss her when she goes. But I’ll never have her put down.’

A spokeswoman from Guinness World Records encouraged Lila to send in an application for Rosie for them to review last year – but she never got around to filling it in.

The oldest cat ever is Creme Puff of Austin, Texas, who was born on August 3, 1967 and lived until August 6, 2005 – 38 years and three days.