Before you head to the shelter, take heed – not all cat breeds are in it for the long haul. While domestic cats regularly live to 18 years old, the hairless Sphynx breed has an average life expectancy of just 6.8 years, the lowest of any domestic breed of cat, according to new research. Sphynx cats are a hairless breed that originated in Ontario, Canada, where a hairless male kitten named Prune was born in 1966, according to the Sphynx Cat Association. The average life expectancy for domestic cats in Britain was 11.7 years. They found that the average life expectancy for cats in the UK was 11.7 years, and female cats could expect to live 1.33 years longer than males.

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Persons: –, Kendy Teng, we’re Organizations: CNN, Royal Veterinary College, Chung Hsing University, of Feline Medicine, Cat Association, Animal Welfare Locations: United Kingdom, Taiwan, Ontario, Canada, Britain