Nothing last forever. Sadly this includes the lives of our loved ones. And pets are certainly included in this category. Now, news has broken that the world’s oldest dog has died just five months shy of her twenty-third birthday. The oldest dog was a fox terrier named Pebbles, who had given birth to thirty-two puppies during her lifetime and switched to cat food instead of dog food because it was richer in protein for the aging pup.
Pebbles was twenty-two years old at the time of her death, in dog years that made her one hundred fifty-four years old. That’s quite old for anyone, let alone a dog who gave birth to dozens of puppies throughout the course of her long lifetime.
The dog’s owners, Bobby and Julie Gregory were deeply saddened to lose the beloved pup from their South Carolina home. They have shared a few statements about losing the world’s oldest dog to “natural causes” and explain how grief-stricken they are at her passing.
“She was a once-in-a-lifetime companion, and it was our honor to have had the blessing to have had her as a pet, and a family member,” Julie, her owner, said, according to the Daily Mail. “There was never anyone who met Pebbles that didn’t love her.”
Pebbles defeated the world record for the world’s oldest dog when she met her birthday in May and turned twenty-two years old. Prior to Pebbles’s Guinness Book of World Record win, the oldest dog in the world had been a twenty-one-year-old Scottish Chihuahua named TobyKeith. When Pebbles’s owner realized that their dog was older than TobyKeith, they submitted documentation to compete for the record and were awarded the title of the world’s oldest dog just months later.
Julie and her husband, Bobby, were devastated at the loss of Pebbles. However, they are hopeful that her memory will live on for a while since she remains the oldest dog in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
“Bobby was sitting on the couch, and friends and family started texting and calling about a story they saw about a twenty-one-year-old dog getting the record,” Julie told Guinness about how she found out her dog was older. “When I saw TobyKeith’s story all over the news, I applied.”
Now that Pebbles has passed away, TobyKeith has regained his title as the world’s oldest living dog.
Pebbles had a beautiful life with her South Carolina family. But she was a Yankee dog before that, being born in Long Island, New York, back in 2007. She moved to the South to join Bobby and Julie shortly thereafter.
Pebbles loved country music, according to her owners.
Julie told Guinness, “She loves listening to country music while she is sleeping. Her two favorite country singers are Conway Twitty and Dwight Yoakam.”
What do you think about the world’s oldest dog passing away?