SHOT IN THE BACK – BY HIS OWN DOG!
Bushwhacked Arizona hunter cheats death
AN OLD dog can learn new tricks — and it nearly cost one hunter his life!
Sonny Gilligan had just parked his truck to start hunting jackrabbits in New Mexico when his dog, Charlie, shot him in the back!
“Charlie got his foot in the trigger of the shotgun and I leaned forward and he slipped off the seat and caught the trigger — and it shot,” says Gilligan, 74.
“It was a freak accident but it’s true. That’s what happened.”
Charlie, a LabradorRottweiler mix, was sitting in the back seat with Gilligan’s other pooches, Scooter and Cowboy, late last month when man’s best friend committed the dirty deed.
The ammo blasted through the driver’s seat and entered Gilligan’s back, breaking several ribs and his collarbone.
Miraculously, he was able to call for help and credits first responders from the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office with saving his life.
“If they waited ten more minutes, I would’ve died,” Gilligan says.
“I lost so much blood. I know I actually passed to the other side just before getting to the hospital. But they were able to revive me through CPR and bring me back.”
Gilligan was airlifted by helicopter to an El Paso, Texas, hospital where he’s had several surgeries.
His son, Mark, says: “He is lucky he is alive. ”
After the shoot-’em-up, Charlie and his canine companions ended up in “doggy jail” — the Animal Service Center of the Mesilla Valley.
“I had to bust them out,” says Mark.
Gilligan rescued all three dogs as puppies — and it didn’t cost him a dime to make “quick-draw” Charlie a member of the family.
The accidental shooting was no shock to Mark, who says the trio are full of energy.
“They’re pretty rambunctious,” he says. “That’s why the owners gave them up. So [the shooting] didn’t surprise me at all.”