While humans hold plenty of world records for amazing feats, they aren’t the only species in the record books.
Plenty of others hold records for some of the most incredible accomplishments for their kind, and Bobi was one of the more recent entries for dogkind.
Beating out a record that’s been up since 1910 with 29 years and 5 months, Bobi beats it out by nearly a year at 30 years and almost 9 months.
To put it into perspective, the average lifespan of a dog is estimated to be around 10-13 years, with the luckier breeds reaching up to 15.
Bobi here more than doubled that.
However, Bobi didn’t exactly get it through some form of privilege, his story had a pretty tragic beginning, but the rest of it was all hard work and the will to live.
Shaky Beginnings
Bobi was born in 1992 in Leiria, Portugal, and was scheduled to be put down by the current owner’s parents who was barely 8 at the time.
Back in the day, it was a common occurrence to bury the young in a hole if the family was unable to take care of them.
While it shocked the child and his brother, there wasn’t much they could do to oppose their parents.
However, as luck would have it, Bobi’s mother, Gira, had managed to hide one of her pups before this whole ordeal occurred.
The kids found him and hid him away from their parents until he could open his eyes because at that point, it would be too cruel to do the same act they had done to the rest of the litter.
This was the start of Bobi’s story.
How Did Bobi Manage To Remain So Healthy?
The rest of his life was relatively standard fare, but it doesn’t explain how he managed to reach such an incredibly high age for a dog.
His owner, Leonel Costa, believes it to be tied to a mix of the peaceful and stress-free environment that Bobi was raised in, and a diet of human food.
The latter is specified to have been unseasoned and that he believes it healthier than some of the available canine food in stores.
Naturally, their love and care likely helped benefit in that stress free lifestyle that Bobi has enjoyed too.
On top of all this, they believe that Bobi also possessed incredibly good genes seeing as his mother well exceeded the average canine lifespan and lived to the ripe age of 18.
That said, Bobi isn’t as spry as he was in his actual youth as his eyesight is deteriorating somewhat and isn’t as secure on his feet as he may have been before.
Though, aside from that and a health scare back in 2018, he still remains as active as he can be.
A Miracle Of Nature
Despite these hardships, Bobi, the Rafeiro do Alentejo, remains one of this world’s miracles and we’re happy to have witnessed such a positive story.
It goes to show just how much a healthy diet, perseverance, and a loving environment can improve one’s quality of life.
A lesson for all of us, to be sure.
Until next time, pet parents.