Not all heroes wear capes; sometimes, they come in four legs.
Blue, an 8-year-old pit bull, has been hailed a hero by Philadelphia veterinarians for defending his owners Nina Teller and Leroy Bucahan when two armed men burst into their West Philadelphia home one February morning.
"I told Blue to get after the guy," Buchanan told Penn Vet. "He locked onto the guy's leg and that's when he fired his gun."
The home invaders took off — leaving the loyal dog with a severe gunshot wound. Buchanan rushed Blue to Penn Vet's Ryan Hospital.
"My first instinct was that the shoulder wound was an entry and the sternum was the exit wound," recalled Dr. Erica Reineke, the vet who assessed Blue when he first arrived at the hospital. "We knew the wounds were close to his thorax or in his thorax, and he had some air under his skin. So the first thing I was concerned about was thoracic trauma and bleeding from the bullet."
With critical internal damage, Blue needed emergency surgery. Surgeons at Penn Vet operated on the pit bull for about an hour.
Just 24 hours after post-operation, Blue was up and moving and eating with no complications from the surgery, the Penn Vet said. The loyal dog returned home four days later.
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