Obit of the Day

Obit of the Day: World’s Oldest Living Sheep

Methuselina, the world’s oldest living sheep, died suddenly in a fall from a cliff. She was 25 years and 11 months old. (OOTD is not familiar with the sheep age rate but assuming it’s close to dogs that would put her at nearly 182 human years.) The sheep’s owner never applied to the Guinness Book of World Records for recognition so Methuselina remains the unofficial record holder.

The previous “oldest living sheep” was “Lucky” who died in 2009 in another tragedy: heat stroke. She was 23. The Guinness world record for ovine longevity is 28 years and 51 weeks. (That sheep is unnamed but died in 1989 while giving birth to her 40th lamb.)

From the obituary: “Since the death of Lucky, Guinness World Records has been actively looking for a contender to the title of ‘oldest sheep living’ any owner who wishes to make a claim can do it online at www.guinnessworldrecords.com.” Get to it loyal readers and shepherds.

(Image is courtesy of www.bbc.co.uk)

This is not OOTD’s first sheep-related post. Check out the passing of Shrek, the runaway sheep.

Obit of the Day: The World’s 4th Oldest Person

Delma Kollar was born on Halloween in 1897. That’s not a typo. William McKinley was President of the United States. She would live to see nineteen more. The airplane flew for the first time when she was five. When women were given the vote, she was 22 years old. Those eyes witnessed history in three different centuries. At the time of her death she was the fourth oldest person in the world. (The oldest is Besse Cooper of Monroe, Georgia. She’s 115.)

Mrs. Kollar is survived by one 87-year old son, six grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, 11 great-great grandchildren, and one great-great-great grandchild. For those doing the math that is five living generations at one time.

(Image is courtesy of grg.org)

Two other great supercentenarian posts from January: The World’s Oldest Leap Year Baby and The Oldest Sitting Judge in the U.S.