Loki, a 14-month-old Pit Bull/American Bulldog mix, escaped from his yard in Kuna, Idaho, the morning of Feb. 17, and wandered to the train tracks about 100 yards away.
Around 10:30 a.m., he was struck by a train. And then another. And then 11 more throughout the day.
“They hate hitting animals, but they can’t stop that train,” Loki’s dog dad, Ryan Rossi, told ABC News today. “They just considered [Loki] was dead after they hit him.”
Finally, around 4:30 p.m., the conductor of the 13th train that hit Loki saw the dog lift his head. The conductor called animal control.
Rossi and his wife, who had spent the day looking for Loki and posting Lost Dog messages on social media, got a phone call that evening that Loki had been hit by a train.
“Oh my god. It was devastating,” Rossi told KTVB.
Fearing the worst, Rossi, his wife and their two kids drove to the WestVet Animal Emergency Center.
“When we went back to say our final goodbye, he lifted his head and smiled,” Rossi told ABC News. “If he’s fighting, we’re fighting.”
Loki was laying in the middle of the train track when he was run over multiple times. “He’s not a huge dog, and so thank god he was low enough,” Rossi told KTVB.
Although he lost his rear left leg, left eye and tail, Loki is making a remarkable recovery. The Rossi family brought him home from the hospital Saturday, and by the next day, Loki was having no problem getting around on three legs.
“Every day I look at him and he’s moving more and more,” Rossi told ABC News. “He’s adapting so quickly. It’s just a miracle.”
A “Lucky Loki” GoFundMe page has been created by a family friend to help cover the cost of Loki’s surgeries. As of this morning, about $7,100 of the $10,000 goal has been raised.