A puppy once destined to be a hawk’s afternoon snack is now safe and happy at home with the Los Banos, California family that rescued him.
After miraculously surviving a fall of at least thirty feet, a young boy spotted the puppy wiggling in his mother’s garden.
“All of a sudden I saw this little puppy laying there, he was almost dead,” explains 7-year-old Taylor Calloway.
The puppy, so young that he could barely open his eyes, was covered in grease, most likely from a junkyard nearby where the family believes the hungry hawk scooped him up.
Calloway’s grandmother, Elaine Bouchard, says that the puppy still bears the four puncture marks from where the hawk’s talons dug into his skin. According to the family, the hawk lives in a large tree on their property and can often be seen flying overhead.
Bouchard has named the puppy T.J. Heavenly in honor of her grandson, the pup’s rescuer. T.J.’s breed has not yet been determined, but the family has noticed already the puppy’s feisty spirit. Bouchard says that she isn’t surprised little T.J. was able to free himself from the hawk’s grasp, telling the press that the pup is a little fighter.
“He’s such a little bulldozer, I can see him wiggling right out of the talons,” says Bouchard.
The puppy that fell out of the sky has found his way into the family’s hearts. T.J. joins the family’s other animals, including other dogs, cats, and horses. “He’s like one of the family,” Calloway says of T.J.
Bouchard agrees. “My thought is when God drops a puppy from the sky, you keep it,” she says.
