A few weeks ago, a chihuahua named Spike was officially the world’s oldest dog, but that title was taken just a few short days ago when another oldest canine came to light.
Spike is 23 years old and received the title of the Guinness World Records’ World’s Oldest Living Dog on January 19, according to People. However, the group said on February 2 that it had recently gotten proof that an older dog was alive in the world. The new record-setter is Bobi, a 30-year-old dog living in Portugal.
Bobi was 30 years and 268 days as of Friday and has always lived in Leiria, Portugal. The animal is a purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo, which typically lives 12 to 14 years, the organization noted.
Bobi is not only the oldest dog alive, but is also the oldest dog to have ever lived, winning out over another dog named Bluey who died in 1939 at 29 years and five months old.
Bobi was registered with a veterinarian in 1992, who was able to say what the dog’s date of birth was. His age was also confirmed by a database for pets. He was born in an outhouse along with four other male puppies in a structure that his owners, the Costa family, used for wood storage.
“I was eight years old,” Leonel Costa told Guinness World Records. “My father was a hunter, and we always had many dogs.”
His father, however, felt that they couldn’t keep the puppies because they already had too many animals.
“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 that they would not survive,” Leonel said.
Leonel’s parents took the puppies away while their mother was not there, but they didn’t notice that they had forgotten one — Bobi — because his color blended into the wood. Leonel and his brothers were heartbroken over the puppies’ demise, but noticed that the mother dog kept going to the place where the dogs had been born.
“We found the situation strange, because if the animals were no longer there, why would she go there?!” he said. The boys found Bobi in the shed and decided not to tell the parents the dog was there.
“We knew that when the dog opened its eyes, my parents would no longer bury it,” Leonel said. “It was popular knowledge that this act could not or should [not] be done.”
“I confess that when they found out that we already knew, they screamed a lot and punished us, but it was worth it and for a good reason!” he noted.