Living next toUlumay Wildlife Sanctuary in Merrit Island, Florida, Jo Ellen Kleinhenz is used to seeing a variety of animals from her own backyard. What she never expected, however, was that an alligator would get into it - and attack her 7-month-old puppy, Chloe.Chloe, a mixed breed that Kleinhenz adopted when the pup was 3 months old, had managed to get around a fence separating the garden from the sanctuary. It had flooded after Hurricane Irma, meaning that the sanctuary's residents could get far closer to the homes that border it than they usually would be able to. This, as Kleinhenz explained to Florida Today, was when disaster struck.
Source: Courtenay Animal Hospital/Facebook
After hearing"this terrible yelping noise, just this awful, awful sound," she rushed outside to find her beloved puppy in the jaws of one of the enormous reptiles, who was trying to drag her into the floodwater. She recounted what happened next on a GoFundMe page raising money for Chloe's medical bills:
The gator was trying to pull her deeper into swamp and she had grabbed onto a branch with her teeth to stay above water. I couldn't reach her. The alligator released her miraculously and she swam to me.
Source: Jo Ellen Kleinhenz
The young puppy was rushed to the Courtenay Animal Hospital, but the diagnosis looked grave. The alligator had grabbed her by the middle, puncturing it and letting filthy swamp water into her stomach and lungs, as well as crushing one of her back legs in its powerful jaws.But Chloe was a fighter and, after hours of surgery and treatment, she pulled through. Unfortunately, her paw was too damaged to save and her leg had to be amputated, but this isn't getting the plucky pup down; in fact, she's running and playing just as well as before, despite being down a leg.The vets who healed her even gave her a toy alligator so she can get her own back!https://www.facebook.com/CourtenayAnimalHospital/videos/1692988624115250/According to Dr Elizabeth Chosa, who treated Chloe, most dogs don't survive alligator attacks, making her recovery all the more miraculous. A month after the attack, she's back to her old self - minus a leg, but happy as can be.Although Chloe survived her terrifying ordeal, many other dogs aren't so lucky. Always supervise your pets when they're outside; it can only take a tiny hole in a fence for your dog to escape and get into an accident!
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