‘King of the Hill’ Fans Preemptively Pour One Out for Ladybird Before the New Revival Hits

Between raccoon brawls, gas leaks and an elaborate, costumed dance routine with her owner, Ladybird, the Hill family’s pet bloodhound, overcame a lot throughout her 13 seasons on King of the Hill. But even with her stellar track record of patience and resilience — one tested time and again by Hank’s neuroticism — there’s one thing that just might topple the beloved 14-year-old pup: the revival’s near-decade-long time jump.

King of the Hill’s upcoming 14th season will pick up roughly eight years after we last saw the fine folks of Arlen, Texas. Featuring an aged-up cast — including a now 21-year-old Bobby Hill working as a chef, per voice actress Pamela Adlon — several fans recently realized the future might not be as bright for Ladybird, who was already reaching old age during the show’s original run.

“A harsh reality we’ll have to cope with in the reboot,” HansMLither captioned a screengrab of the elderly dog in a post shared to the King of the Hill subreddit. 

Considering Ladybird was reaching her mid-teens during the show’s finale — most bloodhounds live to be roughly 10 to 12 years old, per Langston Animal Hospital — several fans paid their preemptive respects to the Hill family’s dog and theorized on how the series will handle her likely death. 

“Ladybird’s definitely in doggie heaven,” speculated Jareth247. “She was canonically about a year older than Bobby, so when he was 13, she (was) at most pushing 100! And if she’s alive eight years later, I’d imagine she’d be more existing than really and truly living.”

“Honestly, that’s a harsh reality for anyone who loves their pets,” added xk1138. “Aging sucks.”

Although several commenters joked that Mike Judge and the series’ showrunners should grant Ladybird the gift (curse?) of immortality — as LongEyedSneakerhead put it, “a 21-year-old Ladybird wouldn’t be much different from a 13-year-old Ladybird” —  SonikKicks39 had a better, and much less-existentially horrifying, idea as to how the hound’s legacy could live on during the show’s newer installments. 

“Maybe (Hank) finally bred her… ‘one of these days’ and her puppies or the next generation is still around,” they wrote. “If I remember correctly, she never got fixed on the show.”

But whether Ladybird went out with a litter (in spite of her narrow uterus) or crossed over the rainbow bridge, the First Dog of Rainey Street will always be irreplaceable — no matter how many raccoons Bobby attempts to adopt.