World’s Oldest Dog Dies Peacefully
An Australian dog, the world’s oldest, Maggie, died at the age of 30 in southwest Victoria, owner of the dog said on Wednesday. Maggie the Kelpie, an Australian dog was possibly the oldest canine in the world.
Owner Brian McLaren, a dairy farmer in Woolsthorp, Victoria, confirmed the news to The Weekly Times.
“She was 30 years old, she was still going along nicely last week, she was walking from the dairy to the office and growling at the cats and all that sort of thing,” the owner said.
Maggie had lived on Brian McLaren’s dairy farm in Woolsthorpe, southern Victoria, since she was just eight weeks old.
“We got her when she was only a little pup. We believe she was pretty close to 30 years old, if not she was at least 29-and-a-half,” Mr. McLaren said.
At the age of 30, Maggie was over 200 in human years, and a contender for the oldest dog in the world, but Mr. McLaren had lost the original paperwork for the dog, meaning that her age could not be independently verified.
Officially, the title of the oldest dog in the world still belongs to Bluey, an Australian cattle-dog from Rochester in Victoria, which reached 29 years and five months. According to the Guinness Book of Records.
Maggie’s age cannot be verified as McLaren lost the dog’s paperwork when she was a puppy. However, McLaren said he brought Maggie back to the family farm when his youngest son, Liam, was just four. He is now 34 years old, meaning the extraordinary dog was at least 30.
Maggie worked on the farm rounding up cows until about 12 years ago.
“She wasn’t pampered but she was well looked after. She always had milk — not too much of it, but she loved her milk — and anything else she’d wanted,” Mr. McLaren said.
“She loved chasing the motorbike. When she was up and going she would want to run along beside it, so the faster you went, the quicker she would run. She had the greatest life.”
Maggie, who was deaf but had not been for a vet check for 15 years, was still working as the farm’s guard dog in her later years.
Mr. McLaren said Maggie passed away peacefully, curled up in her bed, on Sunday night.
“We were great mates, it is a bit sad,“ said McLaren, who has already buried Maggie.
Most dogs live between 8 and 15 years. Records of dogs living more than 20 years are extremely rare and usually involve smaller breeds. “The best thing about it is the last couple of weeks I was petrified I was going to have to put her down, and that was going to break my heart,” Mr. McLaren said.
“I’m so pleased she went the way she went.”
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