A dog is one of the best companions a parent could give a child. Dogs are loyal, loving, and there is nothing they wouldn’t do for their humans. One family saw the strength of a dog’s love first hand when he saved their daughter from a snake attack.
Adam and Donya DeLuca adopted a dog for their seven-year-old daughter, Molly. This new addition to their family was a German Shepherd named Haus.
He was a wonderful fit for the family. “He just bonded with all of us so quickly,” Donya explained to Today. “It was like he was always part of our home.” The DeLuca’s were thrilled to have Haus, but they always wondered if it was safe to leave him alone with their little girl.
One day, they got to see the dog’s true colors when they left Molly and him playing outside. Molly’s grandmother watched from the back door as the little girl and the pup gathered toys together. Suddenly, Haus started acting strange.
The pup began to jump around in a panic. “He kept jumping back and then forward, and he did it three times,” Donya later described. When Molly’s grandmother saw this aggressive behavior, she immediately assumed Haus was going to attack Molly. Luckily, she couldn’t have been more wrong.
Haus saved the little girl’s life in an extraordinary way. As the two wandered outside, they came face-to-face with an Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake. These snakes are extremely dangerous – this one struck out at Molly in full attack mode.
Haus sprang into action. He jumped in between the snake and Molly, desperate to save her from its bite. The snake bit the dog three times, but the young girl was safe.
Molly’s grandmother rushed Haus to the vet; he was in desperate need of help. The dog’s body was already going limp, and he was drooling uncontrollably.
“What [rattlesnake venom] can do is a lot of bad things,” veterinarian Danielle Pollio explained. “It can cause problems with clotting, so [it] can bleed into the wound uncontrollably.”
The dog’s family began to worry that he would not recover. He needed much more intense medication than most dogs that suffered from snake bites. Haus was prescribed an IV drip with antivenin instead of the usual vials of antivenom. The dog needed to be on constant medication for four days.
Meanwhile, the medical bills were piling up. The costs for keeping Haus alive were already $10 thousand, and the family was worried about their financial security. Then a friend stepped in.
Cherissa Vandergriff created a GoFundMe page to help the family pay their dog’s medical costs. They had originally set a goal of $28 thousand, but the family ended up raising over $51 thousand.
The DeLuca’s were so grateful for the support of this many people, and they were inspired by their dog’s steady recovery. “What keeps me going is how he still flicks his tail every time he sees me come into his kennel, even though I know he’s hurting,” Donya shared.
The dog was able to recover and is now reunited with his family. They couldn’t be happier to have a sweet companion like Haus. This is one pup who truly loves his human.
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