Cye is a really short cat that lives in Kitchener, Ontario, with his owner Sarah Langille

Apr 1, 2014 20:26 GMT  ·  By

Cye is a cute short cat. Actually, he is so short that he has recently been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's shortest living feline.

The three-year-old moggie, that lives in Kitchener, Ontario, with his owner Sarah Langille, is a Munchkin cat, a breed of feline which is distinguished by its very short legs, caused by a naturally occurring genetic mutation.

Cye measures only 13.6 cm (5.35 inches) from floor to shoulders, which means he is 2.2 cm (0.86 inches) shorter than the previous record holder, a female munchkin cat called Fizz Girl. Actually, he so short that, when he stands up, he looks like he’s lying down or crouching. But besides his short legs, Cye has a normal size body.

25-year-old Sarah Langille, the cat's owner, says she decided to submit Cye's measurements to Guinness World Records after a friend made a revealing remark. He told her that Cye was the shortest cat he had ever seen.

That comment sparked her curiosity, so she started looking for information about record holders online. That's when she discovered that Fizz Girl from San Diego clocked in at 15.2 cm (6 inches), well above Cye’s diminutive stature.

People at Guinness World Records asked Langille, who has been a hobby breeder of tiny cats for five years, to provide a videotape of the cat and certification of Cye’s height from a veterinarian, who measured the cat three times with a special instrument.

Langille says Cye has “a very big personality,” enjoys sitting up on his hind legs for fun and is able to leap up to 2.4 metres (8 feet). The tiny cat suffered an eye injury when he was a kitty but is otherwise healthy, active and very friendly.

Sarah's entire family are very proud of the new record holder and always knew they had a particularly short cat, but now they have the papers to prove that their pet is actually the shortest on the planet.

“My vet said the odds of another cat being shorter are slim to none. He doesn’t really have legs. He just has paws,” Langille's mother Gail MacKay said, according to the Star.

After being named the shortest cat in the world, Cye became wildly popular and made a lot of headlines. Even the hugely successful late-night show Saturday Night Live aired a brief item on Cye during its Weekend Update segment.