Tag: Des Moines

Hero German Shepherd Shot 3 Times Protecting Boy During Home Invasion (He’s OK!)

Early Wednesday afternoon, Javier Mercado, 16, was upstairs with with his 2-year-old German Shepherd, Rex, in their Des Moines, Wash., home when they both heard the glass shatter in a sliding door.

Rex immediately bolted downstairs and started barking. “I heard one guy scream, ‘The dog bit me, get the dog,'” Mercado told KING 5 News.

Mercado grabbed his cell phone, hid in a bedroom closet and called 911. He could hear the intruders beating Rex, then he heard Rex just outside the closet door. The intruders came upstairs and ransacked the bedrooms.

When they entered Mercado’s bedroom, Rex used what little strength he had left to bark at them. Then Mercado heard the unthinkable.

“I heard one gunshot and several after that,” he told KING 5 News. “And my dog just cried after every shot that hit him.”

Just like any of us would want to do, Mercado wanted to rush out and help his dog, but the 911 dispatcher told him to stay put. “I thought he was dead for sure. I broke down,” Mercado said.

While Mercado remained inside the closet, police and SWAT officers arrived, but the criminals ran off when they heard the sirens. The officers rushed Rex to BluePearl Renton Veterinary Partners, a local animal hospital.

Then Mercado got a phone call he’ll probably never forget. It was the animal hospital, letting him know Rex had survived the three gunshots to his neck and hind legs.

This hero dog wasn’t out of the woods yet. Yesterday he had surgery to repair a fractured bone his left hind leg by inserting a surgical pin and screw.

These surgeries can be very expensive. To help cover the costs, Mercado’s aunt, Susy Cadena, launched a GoFundMe campaign that has raised over $57,000.

“We have exceeded the goal and we just wanted to assure you that all the money will go toward Rex’s medical expenses and his recovery,” Cadena noted in an update. “Anything left will be donated to institutions and organizations whose mission is to protect our loved pets.”

As of yesterday, Rex is in stable condition. He’s recovering in the intensive care unit, “receiving pain medication, antibiotics, wound care and round-the-clock monitoring,” according to the BluePearl Veterinary Partners Facebook page.

For updates on Rex’s progress, you can follow the Rex the Hero Dog Facebook page.

“I feel like if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here today telling you this story,” Mercado told KING 5 News.

Photo via Rex the Hero Dog Facebook page

Des Moines 8th Graders Save Dog Stuck in Mud

As George Holtz, Maev Cleary, Nate Stenberg and other eighth-grade students from Bergman Academy in Des Moines, Iowa, jogged around a drained pond Thursday during gym class, they noticed two dogs below them in the mud. One was unable to move.

“Whatever,” the teens did not say.

While others in the surrounding park did nothing, the eighth graders immediately sprang into action.

“The black dog was right here and looking at the dog with concern,” Holtz told WHOtv.com. “And then we put this stick down so then we wouldn’t sink in the mud when we tried to rescue them.”

The trapped dog’s height was a problem. “It didn’t have very long legs, so it was stuck in there pretty good and it couldn’t get out because its legs were too short,” Cleary told WHOtv.com.

The group was eventually able to free the scared and shivering dog. They contacted the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, which, happily, reunited the microchipped dogs with their owner.

“You don’t think of kids actually going out of their way to do something, out of their comfort zone, for a strange animal,” their proud teacher, Cristy Reeves, told WHOtv.com. “It was an awesome feeling after they got finished, because they saved their lives.”

As for the group now being hailed as heroes, Stenberg said, “If you want to call us heroes, I guess you can.”

Teenagers.

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