World’s oldest dog dies at age 20

Monday, January 18, 2010

The world’s oldest dog, who answered to the name of Otto, has died at the age of 20. Otto, who was a Dachshund, was born and lived in Shrewsbury, in the county of Shropshire in England.

The dog had to be put down by a vet on Thursday after it was discovered that the animal had developed stomach cancer. The dog’s date of birth was February 14, 1989, which means that Otto would have been 21 years old 31 days after his death occurred. Lynn Jones and her husband Peter had both owned the dog since he was six weeks old. Otto was officially declared the oldest dog in the world by the Guinness Book of Records in October 2009. He was cremated on Friday.

Now Lynn Jones has payed tribute to her pet. “I have cried all morning, I am devastated,” she said. “He died at 10:10AM and I feel like I’ve lost my right arm. I know I sound like a wuss, but he was like the son I never had, my baby boy. I am glad he is not suffering any longer but I wanted him with me forever. We found out yesterday that he had a very large tumour in his stomach and last night I felt that he was trying to tell us something. He couldn’t sit or lie down comfortably and he was trying to tell us that he’d had enough, so we made the decision to end his suffering and took him to the vet [Thursday] morning.”