Spike the World’s Oldest Living Dog
Who’s a good boy that loves crunched-up Doritos? Spike, the world’s oldest living dog does. A chihuahua in Ohio named Spike is 23 years old. According to guinnessworldrecords.com, Rita Kimball found Spike in a grocery store parking lot.
Spike is 23 years and 43 days old as of December 7th. He’s 9 inches tall and weighs 12.9 pounds. He was actually about 10 years old when Rita found him.
When Rita found Spike he looked like life had given him a raw deal and neglect:
“He had been shaved up his back, had blood stains around his neck from a chain or rope, and looked pretty rough,” said Rita.
“The clerk in the grocery told us he had been there for three days, and they were feeding him scraps.”
Rita decided to let him come home with her.
“When we left the store and entered the parking lot, he followed,” recalled Rita.
“We opened the car door to put our grandson in his car seat, and Spike jumped right in and sat on the seat, as if he knew where we was [sic] going. It was meant to be.”
The Life of Spike
Spike’s typical day is to wake up around 7 am and have breakfast (or fast if he wishes). He’s then taken on walks around the farm by Rita. While he annoy the animals when he was younger, they’ve become attuned to his behavior.
Chihuahuas are known for their little man dispositions and Spike is not too much different. While he was ironically named Spike because he was not aggressive. But at 23 and nearly blind, strangers need to be very gentle with the little guy.
Rita had been watching Jimmy Fallon and they had Pebbles, who was said to be the oldest living dog at 22 years (Sadly, she passed away in October). She knew that Spike was older and contacted Guinness World Records.
I was always under the impression that it was not an exact science in determining a dog’s age. It is much easier to determine a dog’s age when they are younger by examining its teeth. There are no details on how GWR proved Spike’s age, but my guess would be that DNA and teeth were factors.
My chihuahua, Paunch is at a ripe age of 10 now and tries to act like he’s 1. The dog has better abs than me, which I have none!
Maybe you can find a pal like Spike at one of these Michigan Shelters.
14 Awesome Michigan Dog Rescues