He's cute, a lil' ornery, loves naps and hiding his toy fox around the house, and he's a world record holder.
Spike, a Chihuahua-mix living in Ohio with his family is the world's oldest living dog according to Guinness World Records. He's 23 years and 87 days old. He's 9 inches tall and almost 13 pounds.
Rita Kimball told Guinness World Records that she found Spike in the parking lot of a grocery store in Camden, Ohio back in 2010. The grocery store workers say he had been hanging around the parking lot for a few days and they were feeding him scraps. She says:
"He had been shaved up his back, had blood stains around his neck from a chain or rope, and looked pretty rough."
As her family walked out of the store Spike started to follow them, and because she knew he'd been there for a few days, she figured she would take him to her small farm and give him a place to call home. When she took him to the vet, they estimated that he was about 10 years old at the time and that he had likely had a rough live and had been the victim of attacks by other animals.
She decided to name him Spike, after the small but tough Looney Tunes character of the same name. Like cartoon Spike, her Spike was a small dog with a big dog attitude.
"He's friendly, but almost blind and hard of hearing, he gets testy at times and just wants to be left alone."
While Spike's age is unusual, Rita attributes his longevity to a solid routine. She says Spike starts the day between 7 and 7am, eats breakfast, then makes the rounds of the farm to visit the cows, horses and barn cats (and occasionally try chasing them) before going back to the house for a nap in the sun on the porch. He'll go on walks with the family, rides on tractors while they bale hay and harvest crops, naps again in the afternoon, enjoys dinner and his occasional favorite treat of Doritos and the goes off to sleep. He ends each week with a bath on Saturday night.
Rita contacted Guinness World Records after seeing Jimmy Fallon feature a dog named Pebbles on his show who was the oldest living dog at the time. Pebbles died in October 2022 at 22 years old. She said:
"Most of our family knew that Spike was old but didn't know he had a shot at being the oldest in the world. Now that he is a record holder, they see him as a celebrity."