Bella, a 14-year-old feline from Huntingdon, UK, has claimed the Guinness Record for the world’s loudest purr by a domestic cat, with a noisy purr measured at 54.59 decibels.

The Spink family has had Bella for almost 15 years, and they’ve always suspected that she might have the world’s loudest purr. Friends and family would always wonder at her loud purring, and Nicole Spink’s late husband would complain that she was louder than the TV. One day, they decided to put Bella’s purring to the test – they downloaded a smartphone app to measure the cat’s purr and were blown away by the result. She was louder than the Guinness World record for the loudest purr by a domestic cat, so they applied for an official record attempt.

Photo: Guinness Records

Measuring sound with a smartphone app and having it measured by a sound engineer can yield totally different results, but in this case, the Spinks were lucky to have their measurements confirmed. After feasting on a bowl of her favorite food, Bella got to enjoy some much-needed petting by her owner and she produced some impressively loud purring.

The calibrated class-1 sound meter recorded Bella’s peak pur at 54.59 decibels. That was more than enough to beat the 50-decibel requirement to claim the Guinness Record.

 

It’s important to note that while Bella has set the record for the loudest purr by a living domestic cat, she doesn’t have the loudest purr in history. That title belongs to the late Smokey and Merlin, two felines who purred at the astounding noise level of 67.8 dB, a full 13.21 louder than Bella.