According to the dog’s parents, a German shepherd dog barely survived an alligator attack outside of his Wesley Chapel, Florida, home.
According to a GoFundMe page made by the dog’s upset owner, Susan Alkhatib, Zeus was injured in multiple ways after “a large alligator broke through [the] fence” of his owner’s house and “attacked him” on the evening of June 2.
“Our beloved dog Zeus was sitting peacefully in the lanai with my dad when he heard a small animal in the backyard,” said Alkhatib. The owner claims that Zeus “ran out the doggy door to investigate” and that the alligator “grabbed the dog and dragged him back into the water” in a matter of seconds.
“We rushed outside with a flashlight and were shocked to see Zeus swimming back toward us, wounded but fighting to survive,” Alkhatib added. “My mom waded into the water to help him out, and we rushed him to the nearest emergency vet as he was bleeding heavily from his mouth.”
“All of a sudden, I couldn’t hear him anymore,” one family member said in recollection of the attack. “My dad came in frantic. I’d never seen him like that,” he said.
Alkhatib informed that, “The alligator had just let go of Zeus. We started yelling at him to come toward us. When he got closer, he got tired. So we had to kind of go into the pond a little bit to get him.”
The vicious attack left Zeus with multiple puncture wounds to his neck and a displaced jaw, according to the GoFundMe page. Of its $10,000, the page has raised more than $6,800 to assist with veterinary expenses.
The dog’s owner has released pictures of the dog that show him with injuries to his jaw and bleeding from his neck. “A miracle” is how Alkhatib described the dog’s escape from the attack on her GoFundMe page.
“The vet told us the gator had just missed his jugular — it looked like Zeus’s entire head had been in the gator’s mouth. The fact that he made it out alive is nothing short of a miracle,” she stated.
“We’re doing everything we can to help our boy heal, but the cost of his care has become overwhelming and unexpected. If you know Zeus, you know he’s a fighter … We just want to see him happy and healthy again,” the page said.
Trappers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are looking for the alligator that is attacking.
