Thirty guests tucked into a sheep-shaped cake at a 21st birthday party for a merino who may have set a longevity record for his kind in Australia or even the world, news reports said on Saturday.
”We’ve never ever had a sheep as old as George,” said New South Wales farmer Myra Tolhurst.
”Normally they go to about 12,” she told national broadcaster ABC. ”I did ring the Guinness Book of Records without success. They just told me they don’t have a category for them.”
George’s staying power is all the more remarkable given that he was not expected to survive when his mother deserted him shortly after his birth during the 1984 drought. He was taken in by Tolhurst, who raised him by hand. — Sapa-DPA