A UK cat’s purr is so loud that she’s been known to drown out TVs in her home and startle guests.
Her humans have long joked that she’s got the loudest purr in the world.
Now Bella, a 14-year-old tabby living in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, has the record to prove it. After a team from Guinness World Records visited the Spink family in their home, sound-proofed the living room and carefully sampled Bella’s motorboat-like buzz with specialized audio equipment, the organization officially deemed Bella the record-holder for the world’s loudest purr.
Bella’s happy noise registered just shy of 55 decibels, a level which puts it in the range of a moderately busy office or a typical human conversation — much louder than typical for her species. She may even rival pumas, who despite their size can purr (loudly) but cannot roar.
Bella isn’t just a loud purrer, she enthusiastically purrs whenever she knows food is on its way or she gets scritches from one of her human family members. Guests in the home are often taken aback by how loud Bella’s happy sound is.
“Friends and family always notice Bella’s loud purr, everyone comments ‘what’s that loud noise?” her human, Nicole Spink, told Guinness. “‘Oh, it’s the cat’. It’s just Bella being happy!”
When she’s not purring or hanging out with her family, Bella is fond of long naps.
“She’s a stubborn little old lady, and she does how she pleases,” said Spink. In the home they share, she admitted “it is very much Queen Bella’s world.”
Of course the relevant question for Buddy and his admirers is “Does Guinness have a record for world’s quietest purr?”
If they do, Buddy may very well be in the running with a purr that usually can’t be heard unless you get up close and press your ear right up against the little guy. Usually I’m unaware he’s purring unless I rub his head or he lays down on my chest and I can feel the buzzing. That makes it even more special on the rare occasions when I can actually hear his purr, which lets me know he’s especially content.
Congratulations to Bella and her humans. Maybe they can get a smart TV with a Bella Mode that adjusts dialogue in response to ambient noise similar to the way car sound systems automatically adjust when windows are rolled down or the cabin gets noisier at highway speeds. Or they can just turn on subtitles like the rest of us, since dialogue is all over the place and often unintelligible these days.
Header image credit Guinness World Records
Pain In The Bud 
Happy to read about the purrs especially Buddy
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad he’s back to his quiet purrs too!
LikeLike
This is fantastic. Bella has a purr but nothing like this little one. Nice to see they share a name !!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah when listening with headphones you really hear how loud she is. Maybe your Bella can get the record for most mice exterminated.
LikeLike
Wow, that is one loud kitty! My boys, Archie and Meow Meow, are pretty loud purrers, but they’ve got nothin’ on Bella. And our girl Beanie, well, she’s got the softest purr. You have to feel it or lean in to hear it. She also doesn’t meow. We’ve had her over a year now and I’ve never heard meow once. She’s a little weirdo and that’s ok. Our family loves the weirdos out there and we usually bring them home to stay! 😃
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not meowing at all might be better than constantly meowing, trilling and chirping lol. Although I wouldn’t change a thing about Bud even though he can be annoying.
LikeLike
One of my many crazy business ideas was offering the taped sound of a purring cat as a fix for insomnia.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Already done. Cat purring is a popular “genre” of ASMR videos on Youtube. I saw a few of those videos and marveled at how long people were able to pet their cats without getting a paw smack.
LikeLike
Another big cat, the cheetah, also purrs. I’ve also read that they may have some ancient ancestry with pumas way back when, before the continents broke apart.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah they’re both in the subfamily felinae, putting cheetahs and pumas closer to house cats, bobcats and small wildcats. Felinae can purr but not roar. All the cats in the pantherinae subfamily — tigers, lions, jaguars, leopards — can roar but cannot purr.
Pumas kind of get the short end of the stick because people think they’re the same as African lions, so they shoot them not realizing they’re not dangerous to humans. Also they’re capable of that classic “wild cat scream” so people think they’re aggressive.
LikeLike
Yeah, when I’m out in the hills of California and I see a mountain lion I immediately transport myself to the plains of Africa. Morons.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That sure got the attention of several cats here!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s always funny when that happens. I saw a Youtube video years ago with a female cat who was entranced with a video of kittens playing on her human’s computer monitor, and she keeps going behind the monitor looking for the kittens.
Usually Bud’s ears perk up and he vocalizes a “Mrrrrrp?” when he hears cats in videos.
LikeLiked by 1 person