Tornado Terrier Hailed as Hero
Crawled home with two broken legs
Mason, a scruffy terrier mix, was carried away from his home in North Smithfield, Alabama, when a tornado struck on April 27. Today, a month later, he made his debut on national TV.
The home was destroyed, and Mason’s family had given up hope of finding him alive when they returned to the house to sift through the debris. What they found was their beloved dog, sitting on the doorstep.
Mason was not in good shape, and both his front legs were broken – probably indicating that he’d been picked up by the tornado and then dropped to the ground.
The family rushed him to the Birmingham Jefferson County shelter, where veterinarians diagnosed him with distal radial ulna fractures, meaning that he would have been unable to walk and would have to have crawled home.
The family asked the shelter to look after him while they try and put their own lives back together. And with the help of donations and the generosity of a nearby veterinary clinic Mason underwent an operation to fix plates into his two front legs.
He is now doing well and a staff member at the shelter said he’s expected to go home to his family in about six weeks.
Mason on Fox TV News on May 27th