As Bob Stenzel and Darcy Cherry sat at a table in their Janesville, Wisc., home at dinnertime last week, a man with a gun entered their house through an unlocked door.
“He had his gun drawn on us and demanded us to the ground, and repeatedly asked us, ‘Where’s the safe?’ and ‘Where is the money?'” Stenzel told KTRK.
“I was just praying and praying and praying for us all to be safe,” Cherry added.
Levi, their 15-year-old, three-legged Pit Bull, began to growl and bark at the intruder. The man ran off, but not before shooting at Levi’s head. Fortunately, the bullet only grazed the top of Levi’s head and lodged in his shoulder.
After being treated for his wounds, Levi the hero dog is doing well and expected to make a full recovery.
“It’s a feeling you can’t really express in words,” Stenzel told KTRK. “I mean, thank God he was here.”
Levi is “as loving as a dog can get,” according to GazetteXtra reporter Frank Schultz.
“Levi got up on his three legs and hobbled over to nuzzle the legs of a Gazette photographer and reporter as they entered his house,” Schultz wrote Jan. 23. “Not bad for a dog who was shot in the head four days earlier.”
This was actually the second time Levi was a hero. On a mountain hike with Cherry and her son in 2014, Levi took a fall off a steep trail. One of his legs was shattered and had to be amputated. Cherry told KTRK she believes Levi protected her son, who was walking right behind the dog, from falling first.
Stenzel and Cherry rescued Levi when he was a puppy and had been abandoned in an apartment building.
“He is amazing. He bounces back so fast,” Cherry told Channel 3000. “I wish I could have his strength and his mobility to just come back and be so loving natured.”
According to the Janesville Police Department, the armed robber was white, 5’7 to 5’8 tall with a slender build, and between 20 to 30 years old. Anyone with information is asked to call the police department at 608-755-3100 or Janesville Crime Stoppers at 608-756-3636.
“This is for my daughter,” said Jason Perez as he suddenly started stabbing a 19-year-old who was walking his 5-year-old Pit Bull, Droogie, in West Covina, Calif., Saturday afternoon.
It was apparently a case of mistaken identity. The unidentified victim, who was taking a walk with Droogie, his mom and a smaller dog named Pebbles, first encountered Perez a few minutes before the attack. Perez complimented Droogie at the time.
A few minutes later, Perez approached the teen again and asked if his name was Christian, which it is not.
The third time Perez approached the teen, he pulled out a screwdriver and started his unprovoked attack.
“I was backpedaling. I ended up tripping,” the victim told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. His mother tried to block some of Perez’s swings, and then Droogie came to his rescue by pouncing on the attacker.
“The guy attacking me was on the ground,” the victim told NBC Los Angeles. “Droogie was on top of him still attacking him. I remember standing up and then hearing my mom just scream, ‘Run, run.'”
The victim grabbed Droogie’s leash and ran, as Perez continued chasing him. Fortunately the victim’s brother happened to drive by, and drove his family to safety.
Police responding to 911 calls took Perez into custody, charging him with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Perez was hospitalized and treated for bites to his buttocks, torso, arms and legs, West Covina Police Lt. Dennis Patton told the Tribune.
The victim was treated for non-life-threatening puncture wounds on his upper body. “I’m feeling fine today,” he told the Tribune the day after the attack.
Droogie, who had previously never shown aggression, suffered a minor stab wound to his neck, but is otherwise doing fine. The victim said his hero dog is getting plenty of rewards for saving him.
“We gave him leftover food last night, sausages this morning and a lot of treats in between,” he told the Tribune.
Around 10 p.m. Thursday night, Aubrey Christopher was awakened by the growling of his usually docile 1-year-old Pit Bull, Blue.
When Christopher got up to see what was the matter, he saw three strangers standing on the porch of his Kansas City, Mo., home. One man had a gun, and another was holding a knife.
Christopher ran to his kitchen to find something to protect himself with. In the meantime, Blue burst through the screen door.
The Pit Bull scared off the criminals, but was stabbed in the neck in the process.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Christopher told KCTV. “It was terrible. I called the police and wrapped a pillow case around his neck to try to stop the blood.”
With help from the Kansas City Police Department, Christopher rushed Blue to Union Hill Animal Hospital.
“He’s such a sweet dog,” Dr. Christina Belew, the veterinarian who treated Blue, told KCTV. “He was licking the hospital staff as they were treating his wounds. Everyone fell in love with him.”
Blue is now recovering at home with his grateful dog dad.
“If it wasn’t for him, I’d be a dead man,” Christopher told KCTV. “I’m just so glad he’s going to be okay.”
The Union Hill Animal Hospital offered a discount for Blue’s emergency treatment. The $600 bill was paid by the nonprofit Frankie’s Friends, according to KSHB.
To make a donation to help Frankie’s Friends help save more heroes like Blue, click here.
After a pair of male and female Pit Bull mixes apparently escaped from their Atlanta yard last week, the female’s back right paw became entangled in the wire of a chain-link fence she’d attempted to jump over. She was left dangling and standing on her front paws.
Her buddy stood by her side, barking nonstop to get attention.
It worked — but the person who saw the trapped dog didn’t bother letting anyone know until 48 hours later.
“We received a call from someone saying there was a dog hanging by her toe on a fence and that she had been there for two days,” Karen Hirsch, of LifeLine Animal Project, told Mashable.
Hirsch and others from LifeLine, a nonprofit that manages Fulton County Animal Services, freed the female, who they named Athena. When they took her inside their trailer to examine her foot, her buddy, who they named Zeus, was beside himself, barking and crying.
“We had to bring him back and put him in the cage beside her,” Hirsch told The Dodo.
Despite her ordeal, Athena only suffered a swollen toe. When Hirsch visited Athena and Zeus the next day, she said Zeus “was busy licking her toe and protecting her from everyone.”
Thanks to Lifeline, Athena received the veterinary care she needed. “It’s important to note that at most municipal shelters, she would be put to sleep or left untreated,” Hirsch told The Dodo. “But LifeLine raises money enabling us to help animals who are in trouble at the county shelters we manage.”
Lifeline Animal Project was intending to adopt the two out together, but according to Fox 5 yesterday, the two BFFs are now back at home with their pet parents.
Tillie Stayed with Her Trapped Buddy, Too
Just two months ago, an Irish Setter named Tillie also proved just how loyal dogs can be. When her best friend, a Basset Hound named Phoebe, fell into an old water basin in Vashon Island, Wash., and couldn’t climb back out, Tillie did not leave her side for days.
“For nearly a week, Tillie stayed by her side with the exception of the few minutes of each day when she went for help,” Vashon Island Pet Protectors (VIPP) wrote on its Facebook page.
A man who lived nearby notified VIPP that a “reddish dog” had approached him on his property a few times, and then would run back into the ravine.
VIPP rescued Phoebe from the cistern. Both dogs were in good condition. The two had escaped from their house during a party when a guest left the front door open.
“Tillie would never leave, even if the gate was left open, but she’s best friends with Phoebe, and so when Phoebe follows her little Basset Hound nose, Tillie always goes with her to make sure she’s okay,” their relieved dog dad, B.J. Duft, told ABC News. “They’re best pals — inseparable.”
For being such a loyal friend, Tillie was honored Oct. 15 as a “Washingtonian of the Day” by Gov. Jay Inslee, who encouraged everyone in the state “to celebrate the bravery and loyalty of this canine companion.”
News Crew Rescued Dog Dangling from Fence
Unlike the person who waited two days to let anyone know Athena was stuck in an Atlanta fence, a news crew in Corpus Christi, Texas, took immediate action in March when they came across a dog who happened to be in the exact same predicament as Athena.
Using a pliers, an unidentified 3News photographer cut the dog loose and the crew called Animal Care Services.
It was not known how long the dog had been trapped or if anyone else had seen him there. He suffered “a little bit of damage to the paw,” a spokesman for Animal Care Services told 3News.
A woman across the street told the animal control officer she knew the dog’s owner.
“When we spoke to the owner, we educated them, told them they needed to go to their primary veterinarian for medical treatment,” the spokesman told 3News. “We’re going to be following up on that in the next couple of days to make sure they did provide that treatment for the animal.”
Video of Police Officer Rescuing Dog Trapped on Fence Goes Viral
In perhaps one of the most famous rescues of a dog trapped on a fence, Plattsburg, Mo., police officer Nick Sheppard rescued a dangling dog in May 2010.
The rescue was recorded on a very shaky video by a camera inside Sheppard’s hand-held radio.
The video — featuring the dog’s unforgettable reaction to being saved — went viral. The dog was reunited with his owner soon afterward.
If your dogs are anything like mine, they have no problem unmaking a bed by kicking away pillows and pulling off sheets and blankets.
But a ridiculously cute, wigglebutt, 1-year-old Pit Bull named Rush can do just the opposite: as more than 860,000 YouTube viewers have witnessed, Rush can make his own bed.
“The family had seen the video, came and met Rush, and fell in love,” Nora Vondrell, the shelter’s executive director, told ABC News.
The timing couldn’t be better — October is National Pit Bull Awareness Month.
“There are a lot of negative stereotypes about the American Pit Bull,” Vondrell said. “If we were able to highlight the cute, cuddly points of Rush, then we can help people look beyond the Pit Bull label.”
After Rush was brought to SICSA by animal control earlier this year, he was adopted, but he was returned to the shelter in September because he was too rambunctious for the family.
“They weren’t just casting Rush away,” Vondrell told ABC News. “They really did try some things, but it wasn’t a good fit for their family. He is a high-energy dog that really wants to be with you, but he likes to play and run.”
SICSA trained Rush to improve his behavior — but he figured out how to make his bed on his own.
“Day after day, the staff would watch Rush make his bed, and one day, one of our marketing interns got it on video,” Vondrell told ABC News. “We put it on social media to encourage people to come in and adopt the animal.”
It worked. Rush was adopted by Angie and Ronnie Wallace, a local couple who said in a SICSA video they knew it was meant to be when, on their way to the shelter, they saw a Cincinnati Bengals billboard with the words “Rush to be there.”
The couple told WKEF they get asked a lot if Rush still makes his bed.
“He will drag around a blanket, but he slept in our bed the first two days,” Angie Wallace said.
Vondrell told ABC News the shelter hopes to get the message out that although some people may think shelter dogs are misbehaved or have diseases, in reality they are wonderful and healthy.
“What we are asking is for you to visit your local animal shelter,” Vondrell said. “See if there’s an animal that you can love and find a forever home.
“There are lots of Rushes out there.”
Here’s the video that led to Rush’s adoption. Enjoy!
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