Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Dog Birthday: Oldest dog turning 21
Chanel, a 20-year-old dachshund in Port Jefferson Station, N.Y is about to have her 21st birthday May 8th. Denice Shaughnessy, 51, adopted Chanel back in 1989 for $25 from a shelter in Virginia. Although Shaughnessy was a single mother in the army at the time, they always found a way to get by. At one point after their house burned down, and she lost her car, Shaughnessy and her daughter lived on mac and cheese, which they shared with Chanel.
Philip Zangra, the families veterinarian in Port Jefferson Station says whatever they are doing is working. Chanel is 140 years old in dog years, and besides being hard of hearing she is in great shape. According to the story on the seattletimes.nwsource.com, The Guiness Book of World Records will have Chanel listed as the World's Oldest Dog, which is due out in September.
Philip Zangra, the families veterinarian in Port Jefferson Station says whatever they are doing is working. Chanel is 140 years old in dog years, and besides being hard of hearing she is in great shape. According to the story on the seattletimes.nwsource.com, The Guiness Book of World Records will have Chanel listed as the World's Oldest Dog, which is due out in September.
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Greetings from Sydney, Australia.
I'm sorry to rain on your picnic, but Chanel is NOT the world's oldest dog, and needs to live much longer to justify the title. Many dogs are (or were) older than Chanel.
Guinness Book of World Records requires written proof of all claims, which rules out many older animals.
OhmyNewsInternational has published a story I wrote about the world's oldest dog, an Australian sheepdog which lived for 29 years, five months and seven days.
See http://tinyurl.com/cpvx7n
POSTSCRIPT: Chanel's owner, Denice Shaughnessy, has just told me "What you fail to mention in your article is that NONE of the other dogs can prove their age. The people who owned the dogs can say the dog is 100 but unless you can prove it it doesn't make it so. Being that Chanel can prove her age then she is the oldest dog according to Guinness."
[Eric Shackle is a retired Australian journalist whose hobby is searching the Internet and writing about it. He is a featured writer for the South Korean citizen reporters' journal OhmyNewsInternational http://tinyurl.com/aq7kgt
He is also copy editor of Anu Garg's Seattle-based A Word A Day http://wordsmith.org newsletter, which is e-mailed five days a week to more than 700,000 wordlovers in 200 countries.]
I'm sorry to rain on your picnic, but Chanel is NOT the world's oldest dog, and needs to live much longer to justify the title. Many dogs are (or were) older than Chanel.
Guinness Book of World Records requires written proof of all claims, which rules out many older animals.
OhmyNewsInternational has published a story I wrote about the world's oldest dog, an Australian sheepdog which lived for 29 years, five months and seven days.
See http://tinyurl.com/cpvx7n
POSTSCRIPT: Chanel's owner, Denice Shaughnessy, has just told me "What you fail to mention in your article is that NONE of the other dogs can prove their age. The people who owned the dogs can say the dog is 100 but unless you can prove it it doesn't make it so. Being that Chanel can prove her age then she is the oldest dog according to Guinness."
[Eric Shackle is a retired Australian journalist whose hobby is searching the Internet and writing about it. He is a featured writer for the South Korean citizen reporters' journal OhmyNewsInternational http://tinyurl.com/aq7kgt
He is also copy editor of Anu Garg's Seattle-based A Word A Day http://wordsmith.org newsletter, which is e-mailed five days a week to more than 700,000 wordlovers in 200 countries.]
My dog is 16, which I think is pretty good going for a medium sized Aussie blue healer x border collie. 29 or even 21 seems incredible, but good genes and a good life certainly tip the scale in favor of a long doggie life.
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