Is Max, 24, the oldest dog in Britain?
HE has reached the age of 24 – the equivalent of 134 in humans – on a diet than includes a daily cuppa and slice of toast.
Now Max, an English bull terrier/Staffordshire cross, is believed to be Britain’s oldest dog.
Remarkably, vets said he would be lucky to live to six after he was viciously abused by his previous family.
Owner Lisa Hezzell, 36, took Max from a rescue centre when he was three. He had a steel plate in his skull as the result of a beating and is unable to bark because acid had been poured down his throat.
‘He had been rescued from a family in Yorkshire by the RSPCA,’ said Miss Hezzell, of Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. ‘The vets thought that he would not make the age of six, let alone 24.’
His name was Squealer, but she decided to call him Maximus Bodacious – partly after Russell Crowe’s character in the film Gladiator.
‘I like the film Gladiator and always loved Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure. In Bill And Ted they say “bodacious”, which means excellent, so I thought it was a great name for him. He’s excellent and has got a lot of fighting spirit.’
Max enjoys a cup of tea and toast with strawberry jam each day, and is also partial to the occasional morsel from a kebab. Miss Hezzell said she and her partner Rick Winter, 47, avoid walking him on Cleethorpes beach in the summer – so he won’t hear a Yorkshire accent. ‘The previous owners were from Yorkshire, so the accent sets Max off. He was traumatised,’ she said.
In March, terrier Queenie, 21, was claimed to be Britain’s oldest living dog, while the previous title holder Charlie, a Jack Russell from Malvern, Worcestershire, died in 2018 aged 23. The Guinness World Record holder is an Australian cattle dog, Bluey, who died in 1939 aged 29, although an Australian kelpie was claimed to be 30 when she died in 2016.
■ Do you have an older dog than Max? Email dog@dailymail.co.uk