This dog also enjoyed the day.
A little Yorkie fell off a boat and into a shark’s mouth last weekend but survived.
Maddie, a 9-year-old dog, suffered multiple dental injuries, a fractured pelvis and severe bruising on what was supposed to be a calm day enjoying the Florida ocean.
The terrifying incident happened over the weekend, when Bill and Teri Hoag were returning their boat to the dock after an afternoon on the San Sebastian River when Maddie slipped off the bow.
“We turned the boat around, we were looking for her and she jumped out and swam off. She was getting hit by the propeller wave so we just laughed and put her on the boat and thought she’d learn a lesson. We got close to her and we pulled up next to her and she disappeared,” Bill Hogue said. He told News 4 Jax.
“It felt like an eternity but she was unconscious for maybe 10 seconds and of course I panicked. I thought, ‘Oh no, I’m never going to see her again,'” Teri Hogue added.
When Maddie finally surfaced, Terry jumped into the water to bring her back to safety.
That’s when the couple noticed Maddie was bleeding profusely.
“I saw the nasty cuts on her thighs. [propeller]” said Teri Hogue.
They rushed their dog to an animal emergency room, where he spent hours undergoing treatment.
Finally I got a response from the vet, and it was the surprise of his life.
“They said they didn’t think it was a prop. The vet said Maddie had six or seven puncture wounds,” Teri Hogue recalled.
“It’s a deep puncture wound. The veterinarian said he called his colleagues around the country to get information on what it was and they all said it was a shark,” Bill Hogue said.
Animal experts said the boat’s propeller would have cut the 12-pound dog in half.
A shark attack is far more likely, which would explain the numerous puncture wounds all over her small body.
Vets suspect the shark may have shook Maddie as it dragged her under the water, fracturing her pelvis in three places.
The family believes the shark eventually let the strange, hairy prey go, possibly because of its unfamiliar taste, and also because the brave dog put up a good fight of its own.
It remains a mystery as to what kind of shark managed to sink its teeth into this tiny dog.
