Two bullets, both meant for Lauren Wiggins. Her dog Judah took them instead.
Wiggins was trying to leave her Seattle home in November 2024 when her ex-fiancé grabbed a gun and shot her in the leg, Fox 13 Seattle reports. Judah went at the man and was shot in the head and shoulder. “If I had gotten two extra shots to me, I would’ve died that night,” she said. Wiggins is now paralyzed from the knee down on her right leg and walks with an orthotic.
At the time, veterinarians left the fragments in Judah’s head. Digging them out was too dangerous. He is seven now, and swelling brought him back in. Imaging showed the fragments have shifted, and the warning is blunt: left where they are, they could reach his brain or his eyes and cost him his sight.
Surgery is the fix, and it is expensive, so Wiggins has opened a GoFundMe. “He’s literally my lifeline,” she said. “He really is my soul dog.”
What this means for your dog: metal that goes into a body does not always stay put. If your dog is carrying an old pellet, a fragment from a car accident or shrapnel from something worse, ask your vet what to watch for and when to reimage. Take a new swelling, a head tilt, head shyness or any change in vision seriously. Many fragments sit quietly for years, but the ones that move tend to announce themselves late. The story is also a reminder that the bill for an emergency often lands long after the emergency does, which is the gap our piece on vet bills pushing owners to skip care is about.