SOUTH BEND — Just an hour out of surgery, the 10-year-old overweight rottweiler named Angel could barely move her head, let alone her body.

Stitches, recently placed, snaked down her sides, binding the wounds the bullet left behind.

“Mommy’s here. Mommy’s here,” Stephanie Turner said Wednesday afternoon, as she looked into the veterinarian’s cage that held her still-sedated dog. “Oh, I’m so glad to see you alive.”

Wednesday morning, as Turner and her three children slept, someone pried open the front door of the house, most likely bent on burglary.

In February, burglars had targeted Turner’s home in the 2400 block of Prast Boulevard, breaking through a bedroom window and stealing her son’s Nintendo Wii video game system. No one was home, and Turner said she arrived to find the 94-pound Angel sleeping on the couch.

But this time, about 3 a.m. Wednesday, Angel apparently acted differently.

Turner said she woke to the sound of what she thought was an M-80 firecracker going off on her porch. By the time she reached the living room, she found the front door open and her children staring wide-eyed.

“I yelled at them for opening the door,” Turner said. “Then I noticed the dog was gone.”

Turner said she went outside to find a neighbor, who had called police to report a shooting and the sight of three men running down the alley. According to police reports, the three men are believed to have climbed into an older model Lincoln car before driving away.

Turner went back inside, where she saw Angel come limping back to the porch.

The dog had been shot in the chest. A trip to the animal clinic later revealed the bullet traveled along the dog’s side before exiting the body by the rear leg.

Turner said that when she went back into her house, Angel was licking at her blood on the floor.

Animal Control was called, and Angel was taken to an emergency animal clinic, where she was temporarily bandaged. Turner said she then took Angel to her regular veterinarian at the South Bend Animal Clinic.

“She’s a hero. If she wasn’t here, my family could have been killed,” Turner said early Wednesday afternoon. “She really is our Angel.”

Tuner said she’s owned Angel since the dog was a puppy and that the dog is incredibly friendly to everyone but the postman. She believes Angel charged the intruders who were coming into her home, forcing someone to shoot.

“She’s a big fat bear,” Tuner said. “That’s what we call her, because she’s just so sweet. But she wasn’t going to let anyone sneak into her house.”

By Wednesday afternoon, with Angel expected to make a full recovery, Turner said she is now faced with the dilemma of paying for an unexpected veterinary bill, as the costs of the surgery, emergency care and medications are expected to cost $300 to $400.

“That’s money I don’t have right now,” Turner said, “but we’ll figure something out. I can’t turn my back on my baby, not after she saved my family.”

Staff writer Dave Stephens:
dstephens@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6209