Cygnus Regulus Powers

An astronomical naming convention

Cygnus Regulus Powers is a silver-tabby Maine Coon owned by Will and Lauren Powers of Ferndale, Michigan, certified by Guinness World Records on 28 August 2017 as the holder of the longest-tail-on-a-domestic-cat-living title at 44.66 centimetres (17.58 inches). The cat is named for the constellation Cygnus, the swan, and the star Regulus, the brightest in the constellation Leo. The Powers household, where Will is a senior software engineer and Lauren a community-college instructor, has named all its Maine Coons for astronomical objects: Cygnus shared the home with a stablemate Arcturus Aldebaran Powers, who held the Guinness title for the longest cat living (briefly, between two Maine Coon titleholders) in 2017–2018.

The measurement protocol

The measurement was supervised by Guinness adjudicator Michael Empric, who has officiated dozens of cat-record verifications. The protocol for the longest-tail-living title requires measurement of the unstretched tail along the dorsal axis, with the cat in a relaxed prone posture; Cygnus's tail was measured three times on the day, with the median of the three readings reported. The previous title-holder had been Stewie of Reno, Nevada, whose tail of 41.55 centimetres had stood since 2010; Cygnus's figure was an advance of approximately three centimetres.

Press coverage and ongoing tenure

The Powers family has used the dual-Guinness household as a vehicle for Maine Coon breed advocacy, and Cygnus and Arcturus have featured in the Detroit Free Press, on Michigan Public Radio, and in the 2018 edition of Guinness World Records itself. They appeared together in a 2018 photo essay for Cat Fancy magazine. Cygnus has held the longest-tail-living title without contested challenge since 2017; the longest-tail-ever title, also Guinness-certified, belongs to a separate Maine Coon, Altair Cygnus Powers, a sibling line tail of 46.07 centimetres measured posthumously in 2021. The Powers household's record-breeding has been documented in the Maine Coon Breeders' Association journal as an unusual cluster outcome.