| Bobi, a 30-year-old guard dog who cheated death in his first days, is living out the end of his life as a celebrity in central Portugal after being declared the world's oldest dog ever.
When he was recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest dog on 1 February, he broke a nearly century-old record previously held by Bluey, an Australian cattle dog who died in 1939 at the age of 29 years and five months.
A purebred Rafeiro, a Portuguese livestock guard dog whose normal life expectancy is between 12 and 14, Bobi was not supposed to live at all, never mind make it this long.
He was born on 11 May 1992, along with three other pups in a wood storage shed owned by the Costa family in the small village of Conqueiros in central Portugal.
Because the family owned so many animals, the father decided they couldn't keep the newborn puppies and the parents took them from the shed the next day, while the mother dog Gira was out, said Leonel Costa, who was eight years old at the time. But they didn't realise they had left one puppy behind - his colouring made him blend in with the surrounding wood.
Click 'read more' to get to know Bobi better. | 