An Arizona woman’s dog is being hailed a hero after the puppy shielded its owner from a snake bite during a hike.
Paula Godwin wrote on Facebook that she was out for a hike last Friday on the Sonoran Preserve, in north Phoenix, with her dogs Todd and Cooper.
"Nobody wanted to come with me,” Godwin said in a Facebook Live video taken during the hike.
Godwin wrote that it was a beautiful morning, "but as we were walking down the hill I literally almost stepped on a rattlesnake."
"My hero of a puppy Todd saved me," she wrote. "He jumped right in front of my leg [where] I surely would have got bit."
Instead, the golden retriever took a bite to the face and tried to tackle the snake.
Godwin told NBC affiliate KPNX that she rushed Todd to the animal hospital. She later shared photos of the pup’s swollen face and wounds, writing: “This is what a hero looks like.”
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Todd, who is less than a year old, is expected to make a full recovery, KPNX reported.
"Todd's doing so well, [it] is a wonder to me how he is healing," Godwin wrote on Facebook.
Godwin also launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for other pet owners who may need assistance paying the vet bill for anti-venom, which costs several hundred dollars per vial.
