Crime & Public Safety

Three-legged pit bull takes a bullet, saves family

By Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Jan 24, 2016

A Wisconsin family is hailing their dog a hero after the furry companion was shot in the head during a home invasion.

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Levi, a small pit bull, was struck by the bullet when a would-be robber entered the home of Darcy Cherry and her longtime boyfriend, Bob Stenzel on Tuesday night. 

A masked man dressed in black entered the couple's home with a handgun after they forgot to lock their back door. 
He ordered Cherry and Stenzel to lie face-down on the floor and demanded they tell him where they kept any money or drugs. 
"I prayed," Cherry told the GazetteXtra. "I prayed to God for us all to be well."

Cherry, a property manager for a landlord, and Stenzel, a handyman, told the criminal they didn't have any money or drugs in their 144-year-old house, but he was relentless. 

That's when Levi, normally friendly with strangers, got up from his spot in the dining room and started growling at the man. 

"He said, 'Call your dog off. I'll shoot, I'll shoot,'" Cherry said.

Cherry said she could tell the intruder was nervous. 
The couple tried to calm Levi, but he didn't. The man shot him, and a bullet lodged in the skin around the dog's neck.

The robber fled and Stenzel called 911. Emergency Veterinary Service responded to the scene. 

“They were so wonderful to Levi,” Cherry said. 

This wasn't the first traumatic experience Levi had been through.

Cherry got the dog as a puppy almost 15 years ago, after he was found abandoned in an apartment building.

Ten years later, Cherry said Levi was lured into a van and stolen in broad daylight. A neighbor saw the incident, wrote down the van's license plate number and police stopped the van and rescued Levi the same day.

In June 2014, Levi was hiking with his family when he fell off the edge of a trail that ran along a steep drop. The dog's leg was shattered and had to be amputated.

Cherry said Levi's fall prevented her sons from falling, so she credits the dog with saving her family twice.

“Levi is our hero,” she said.

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