30-year-old ‘Bobi’ from Portugal named world’s oldest living dog by Guinness World Records
KUALA LUMPUR: The Guinness World Records has discovered a super senior fluffy canine in 30-year-old Bobi from Portugal who is not only the world’s oldest living dog, but also the oldest dog ever.
This comes just two weeks after Guinness announced Spike from Ohio as the world’s oldest living dog. Spike was born 23 years ago in November 1999.
Bobi, on the other hand, was 30 years 266 days as of Feb 1 when the record was set.
According to Guinness, Bobi is a purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo, which is a breed of livestock guardian dog with an average life expectancy of 12-14 years.
He has lived his entire life with his Costa family in the rural village of Conqueiros, in Leiria.
Apart from his age, Bobi has an incredible story.
He was born as one of four male pups in a barn where the Costa family stored wood.
“I was eight years old,” said Leonel Costa, who is now 38 years old.
“My father was a hunter and we always had many dogs.”
Due to the number of animals they already had, Costa’s father decided not to keep the newborn puppies.
“Unfortunately, at that time it was considered normal by older people – who could not have more animals at home - to bury the animals in a hole so they would not survive,” said Costa.
The day after the puppies were born, Costa’s parents entered the room and quickly took them whilst their mother, Gira, was absent. However, in their haste, one of the pups was unintentionally left behind.
Costa said he and his brothers were very sad over the following days, but, they noticed that Gira continued to visit the barn where her puppies were born.
“We found the situation strange, because if the animals were no longer there, why would she go there?”
After following Gira on one of her trips to the barn, the brothers discovered Bobi. They decided to keep the little pup’s existence a secret until he was slightly bigger.
“We knew that when the dog opened its eyes, my parents would no longer bury it,” said Costa. — Malay Mail