Poncho is a pit bull mix with fur the color of a Dairy Queen peanut butter cup Blizzard. Today is not Poncho’s birthday, but he gets a peanut butter cake all to himself—all for being exactly what the words iced on the cake read: The Goodest Boy.
The Martinez family of Española, New Mexico, adopted Poncho eight years ago and are now more thankful than ever that they did, because good-natured, tail-thumping Poncho might have saved their lives. In June, a man with a knife broke into the upstairs of their home, and Poncho defended his family.
Poncho was wounded severely in the line of duty.
Poncho is now their hero.
“He seems to thrive with all the attention, he is always wagging his tail,” Mattie Allen, of Española Humane Society, told The Epoch Times. “He walks around with a smile on his face, and he’s got a little bit of a swagger.”
It’s hard to imagine what he suffered just weeks ago, given how happy he is today. Ms. Allen witnessed the Martinezes haul him into the shelter from their car at 7:45 a.m., on June 5, after driving all night from town to town searching for a vet. Removing the compression bandages, they saw his “ginormous” wound, “the biggest wound I’ve ever seen,” she said, from the knife that had severed his jugular.
On the operating table, as vet surgeons scampered to save him, Poncho’s heart stopped, his blood loss too extensive. But their efforts to recall him succeeded. Poncho triumphed.
“By that afternoon, we knew he was going to be okay,” Ms. Allen said. “At that point, we reunited him with his family.”
Poncho is loving, but he was hardly tender on the night of the break-in when the family heard him barking at something upstairs in their home—something that clearly wasn’t supposed to be there. “They ran upstairs and found Poncho defending himself and the family against this intruder who had come into the house and had a knife,” Ms. Allen said.
“The intruder stabbed him in the neck then, and that’s when the stabbing occurred, and [Mr. Martinez] said that Poncho never let go of [the intruder’s] arm, even as his jugular vein was pumping blood out,” she said. “I think he kicked Poncho.”
Once the intruder had had enough, he fled the very instant Poncho’s owners called the dog off. Mr. Martinez chased the man down the street, and someone eventually tackled him to the ground, where he was held until Sherriff’s officers arrived. “He’s since been charged with criminal trespass and extreme animal cruelty,” Ms. Allen said.
The suspect wasn’t severely injured from Poncho’s latching onto his arm, though the pit bull’s laceration was the result of an alleged stab and slice action obviously intended to kill, Ms. Allen said. The kick also dislodged a disk in Poncho’s back, causing him to limp around for days after surgery. This was remedied not long afterward in therapy.
He has received “a lot of steroids and acupuncture and laser therapy,” Ms. Allen said. “Now, he’s placing his feet. He’s running. He’s moving beautifully.”
Poncho is an old dog. His age of 8 or 9, in doggy years, is getting up there, and he suffers thusly from arthritis and general deterioration. All things considered, Poncho has recovered fully.
“He’s doing great. He’s a miracle,” Ms. Allen said.
Eight years ago, the Martinez family adopted Poncho. His owners now have to wonder: who saved whom? Ms. Allen said she witnessed an amazing moment between Poncho and his owner after the dog’s lifesaving operation. Following the surgery, Mr. Martinez fell to his knees at Poncho’s side, cradled his head in his hands, and named the dog’s reward.
Pressing the dog’s head to his own, he told Poncho he would get only rib eyes for the rest of his life.
