This dog had her day.
A little Yorkie escaped death last weekend after it fell off a boat and into the jaws of a shark.
Maddie, the 9-year-old pooch, suffered multiple teeth wounds, a broken pelvis and intense bruising on what was meant to be a calm day enjoying the Florida seas.
The harrowing incident unfolded over the weekend as Bill and Terri Hoge were bringing their boat back 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 then she popped up and was swimming. She was in the prop wash, and we were like, we will just laugh about this, get her in the boat, and learn our lesson. As we approached her and pulled up next to her, she disappeared,” Bill Hoge told News 4 Jax.
“It seemed like an eternity, but it was like 10 seconds that she was under, and, of course, I’m freaking out. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ll never see her again,’” Terri Hoge added.
When Maddie finally resurfaced, Terri lept into the water and brought her back to safety.
That’s when the couple noticed Maddie was bleeding profusely.
“We saw the really bad cut in her thigh so we’re like it had to be the [propeller],” Terri Hoge said.
They rushed their beloved dog to an animal emergency room, where she underwent hours of treatment.
Finally, they heard back from the vet — who had the surprise of a lifetime.
“They’re like, we don’t think it was a prop. The vet told us there were six to seven puncture wounds in Maddie,” Terri Hoge recalled.
“Deep punctures wounds. The vet told us she called her colleagues around the country to get some information on what this could be and they all said it was a shark,” Bill Hoge said.
According to the animal experts, a boat propeller would have sliced the 12-pound dog in half.
A shark attack seems much more plausible and would explain the multiple puncture marks throughout her tiny body.
The vet suspects that the shark may have shaken Maddie as it pulled her beneath the surface, causing her pelvis to break in three spots.
The shark ultimately let the strange and hairy prey go likely because of the unfamiliar taste — and because the brave dog put up a good fight of its own, the family believes.
What kind of shark sunk its teeth into the tiny pooch is still a mystery.
