Towser

Photo Courtesy of Glenturret Distillery, Lucy Armstrong

Towser was a Scottish long haired tortoise shell cat (21 April 1963-20 March 1987) who lived for almost 24 years, her entire life, in the Glenturret Distillery. There she kept the barely stores free of mice killing approximately three a day. In fact, Towser is famous for holding the Guinness Book of Records for killing the most mice in her lifetime, 28,899. Of course, this number of mice was not actually counted over the years, but instead was gleaned from observing Towser over a few days and then coming up with an average daily kill. Even though the figure may not be exactly correct, just the same, it is definitely impressive. Perhaps her mousing prowess can be chalked up to having a bit of whiskey added to her milk each night.

Photo courtesy of Glenturret Distillery, Lucy Armstrong

Photography courtesy of Glenturret Distillery, Lucy Armstrong

In celebration of Towser, the distillery created Fairlie’s Light Highland Liqueur which featured Towser’s pawprints on the logo decorating the bottles. Sadly, the liqueur has been discontinued.

Glenturret – The Towser Cask Photo by Fraser Band

However, Towser’s fame still lives on today where the people of Glenturret erected a bronze statue of her. Even though Towser has had several successors, none of them have ever been able to match her mousing skills.

Want to know more about the cat in art, history and literature? Then Revered and Reviled is the book for you. Now available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle formats. 

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