Posted on 09/04/2009 3:23:21 PM PDT by JoeProBono
BERLIN - Following the death of purportedly the world's oldest dog this week aged 21, a German woman came forward on Wednesday claiming her pooch was 25 — with a tattoo of her birthdate in her ear to prove it.
The death of Chanel the wire-haired dachshund — the equivalent of 147 for a human — in the United States made headlines around the world on Tuesday, prompting Verena Wulf from Bavaria to phone her local radio station.
"My Penny is 25," Wulf told SWR3, and came to her family in 1986. "The vet at the time put her age at about one and a half."
The radio station tracked down the vet, Johannes Pohl, who said Penny, a Bernese mountain dog, was his first patient when he opened his practice more than 23 years ago.
Penny, the equivalent of 175 years old for a human, has difficulty walking and her hearing and eyesight are no longer what they were. She shares her bed with the family cat.
But the vet was upbeat: "She has a strong heart — I think Penny will be around for a while longer," Pohl said.
That’s especially amazing for such a large dog.
My cat is going on 25 yrs. She still gets around very well, still eats very good she still plays and enjoys the outdoors. She does get the occasional hairball and her eyesight isn’t what it was. She amazes me and I hope she makes 30.
Something about Germans and tattoing for identification purposes jest don’t set right with me.
Finally, a thread where it would be appropriate to post a picture of Helen Thomas.
I do not believe it but I hope it is true. A Bernese would probably live to be 11 to 12 in most cases. They are big dogs.
It is peculiar with all the cross breeding that humans have subjected dogs to, there never seems to have been any effort to breed for longevity.
And now that it has been discovered that the mutated version of the common animal gene called “Foxp2”, that to some extent gives humans the ability for speech, I am shocked that no geneticist, yet, has given it to dogs. If they did, and dogs could vocalize just a few words, it would be worth millions of dollars. They geneticist could likely patent the new breed and start a corporation selling “speaking dogs”.
Berners were a lot smaller back in the mid eighties. A friend had some very nice smaller ones. I don’t think they were over 55 or 60lbs. The puppies are to die for cute.
Ich bin ein Berneser
Sorry — shouldn’t break protocol...
Ich bin ein Curwinner.
This story is incredible, considering the average age of a Bernese Mountain Dog is 5-8 years!
Sixteen is very good for a medium sized dog. I know some of the little dogs routinely get to 17. I wish mine did but I'm not a little dog person. My 65lb guy is 12 and he is definitely showing his age.
Awww.. Is it a boy or girl. I love those Neufies. 16 is very good. What a beautiful dog.
Thank you :) He’s an old boy, but holding in there.
Older doggies have so much wisdom in their faces. It is like the understand and could tell us what it all means if they could only speak. He is beautiful.
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