Dog Bites Gator, Saves Fallen Woman

July 27 -- It wasn't bad enough that 85-year-old Ruth Gay broke her nose and dislocated her shoulder when she fell in her Fort Myers, Fla., back yard earlier this week. Then she could only lie there helplessly while she heard what she was sure was her brave little dog Blue being devoured by an alligator.

She shouldn't have given up faith in the 35-pound Australian blue heeler.

Blue was bloodied in the encounter, but fought off an alligator who apparently came into Gay's yard to investigate the fallen woman.

"I knew that alligator had been hanging around all day and I was afraid it got him," Gay said. "I just figured it had."

She said she had seen three alligators in a creek that borders her yard earlier in the day, ranging from 6 to 12 feet long. She was sure that one of the reptiles was in the yard when Blue, who laid down against her after she fell and found she couldn't rise, suddenly got up growling.

Moments later she heard more fierce snarling, then snapping and yelping, and she thought her dog was being eaten by one of the gators, she said.

Then everything was quiet.

Gay, who couldn't turn her head because of her injury, didn't know what had happened to her dog until her daughter and son-in-law arrived at the house. Blue greeted the couple at their car and led them to where the woman lay injured.

She was taken to a hospital for her injuries, and Blue was stitched up at Suburban Animal Hospital.

"There were a lot of little puncture wounds, bite wounds," Dr. Terry Terlep, whose colleague treated the injured animal, told The Associated Press. He said Blue suffered a stomach wound that had to be stapled. His other injuries were cleaned, and he was given antibiotics and painkillers.

"He's a little dog and fast like lightning," Terlep said. "He was trying to fend off this animal, trying to get it to go away. And he's so fast he could get out of the way.

"It's amazing what an animal will do in a time of need," Terlep said. "He's a pretty brave dog."