Australian sheep dog Maggie—reportedly the world’s oldest dog—passed away in her sleep on 19 April.
Most dogs have an average lifespan of 15 years, but Maggie lived for 30 years, which is close to 200 in dog years. The dog belonged to a dairy farmer Brian McLaren from Victoria and spent its last years mostly sleeping and walking about the farm. Besides being deaf, the dog was perfectly fine and did what dogs would normally do.
“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,” Brian said to Weekly Times.
“She just went downhill in two days and I said yesterday morning when I went home for lunch ‘She hasn’t got long now’.
I’m sad, but I’m pleased she went the way she went,” he added.
Brian wasn’t able to officially verify Maggie’s age as he had lost her papers. However, when he got her as a pup, his youngest son Liam was only 4. Liam is now 34.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest dog was Bluey, a cattle dog that also lived in Victoria. Bluey was put to sleep in November, 1939, at the age of 29.
