Hero dog who was shot twice saving his owner from her ex now needs surgery

SEATTLE (KIRO) - Two years after a Seattle woman says her dog was shot twice while saving her from her ex, she is asking for help to save him from complications caused by his injuries.

A split second proved just how deep the bond between Lauren Wiggins and her dog, Judah, ran.

“My best friend, my wingman,” Wiggins said of Judah. “He did save my life, and he did get shot twice doing so.”

Wiggins says she was living with an ex in 2024, and things weren’t good. Her parents helped her develop a plan to leave, but as she was packing to go, she says her ex pulled out a gun and began shooting.

“My ex walked into our bedroom, went in the underwear drawer, grabbed his gun and started shooting,” Wiggins said.

She was shot twice in her right leg, leaving her paralyzed on that side from the knee down.

“I think I just kind of went numb. It was kind of like a movie scene. Everything went quiet,” Wiggins said.

Then, Judah rushed in.

“He came right in, attacked him, but he got shot in the head and in the shoulder in the process of doing that,” Wiggins said.

Wiggins thought Judah was dying as he lay on the ground after the incident. She says adrenaline kicked in, and she ran to get help, not knowing whether her dog would survive.

It wasn’t until she was at the hospital that she learned Judah was still alive.

“Oh, it was really emotional. My heart dropped in my stomach thinking about what he did for me,” Wiggins said.

At the time, Judah’s veterinarian thought it would be safer to leave the bullet fragments inside the dog’s body rather than attempt to remove them. For roughly two years, Wiggins says Judah seemed to handle it OK – but things changed this summer.

“I noticed that the middle of his head started to swell, and he developed this really hard lump,” Wiggins said.

A veterinary visit confirmed the fragments were moving, with the possibility they could eventually migrate to Judah’s eyes. On the low end, surgery would cost around $10,000.

“I felt so much guilt that he stepped in to save me. I wish in a lot of ways that he didn’t, so that he wouldn’t have to be dealing with what he is now,” Wiggins said.

Faced with Judah’s mounting veterinary costs, she decided to ask others for help. She started a GoFundMe, never expecting the response she would get. So far, the fundraiser has raised more than $41,000.

“It was really overwhelming,” Wiggins said. “The process of going through the courts trying to get restitution for what happened to Judah and I was terrible. We got nothing but a restraining order and kind of just was like, ‘Well, sorry, that happened to you.’ It was really nice and overwhelming to see that people actually cared.”

Judah is more than Wiggins’ dog. After everything that happened, she says he is one of the few pieces of her old life she still has.

“He’s like the only thing that I was able to take with me after everything happened,” she said. “I mean, there will never be another dog like him.”