When Catherine Svilicic saw her newly adopted Doberman, named Khan, grab her daughter Charlotte by the diaper and fling her across the yard, she briefly regretted her decision to adopt the dog four days prior.
However, when she got a closer look she realized that the decision may have saved her 17-month-old daughter’s life.
Little Charlotte was playing in the grass at her home in the Australian town of Atherton as her mother looked on. That’s when Svilicic noticed Khan perk up and become aggressive with her daughter.
“Khan was really concentrating and was acting aggressively toward Charlotte and kept trying to nudge her but it wasn’t working,” Svilicic told Daily Mail.
That’s when Khan lashed out and grabbed Charlotte.
“So he grabbed her by the back of the nappy and threw her over his shoulder more than a metre, like she was a rag doll,” the girl’s mother said.
That’s when a king brown snake, the third most poisonous snake in the world, jumped out from underneath their house and bit Khan in the leg.
“Charlotte looked pretty shocked and Khan screamed, like he’d been stabbed,” Svilicic recalled. “I realized he had been trying to get in between her and the snake before he threw her.”
Khan collapsed after being bitten by the venomous snake but was taken to the vet where he was given a dose of anti-venom that revived him.
The Advertiser reports that Khan was able to survive because the snake didn’t inject that much venom into him. Svilicic said she was stunned by Khan’s heroic act.
“If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it,” she told The Advertiser.
Kerry Kinder, the owner of Doberinling Boarding Kennels, rescued Khan after she found out he was being abused.
“When Kerry Kinder rescued him, he was starving, had broken ribs and had been beaten — he was an abused dog,” Svilicic said. “It was borderline on whether or not he should be put down because he was in such a bad way.”
Kinder says she isn’t surprised by Khan’s selfless act and that his grandfather also saved a child in a similar situation.
“He was starving for attention and wanted to be loved because he came from an abused home, so I’m not surprised about what he has done at his new home,” Kinder said.
Svilicic said she is forever in debited to Khan for saving her daughter.
“He saved her life by risking his own,” she told Daily Mail. “From now on, he’s Khan the Wonder Dog.”
So from now on, whatever Khan wants… Khan gets.
“If Khan wants a gold bowl, Khan gets it. We owe him for the rest of his life,” she tells The Advertiser.
Apparently, the concept behind the show Lassie wasn’t just to get ratings. Man’s best friend really will protect their friends with their own life.
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