Molly DeLuca was playing outside with the family’s new rescue dog, Haus, when it happened.
The little girl’s terrified cries drew her family out to the yard where a horrifying
scene met them.
At first, they saw the dog’s erratic behavior.
Then they saw the blood.
Adam and Donya DeLuca live in Tampa, Florida, with their two children, seven-year-old Molly
and her younger brother, Joey.
For a long while, they also lived with a German shepherd-mix rescue dog called Bailey.
The furry family member meant the world to Donya.
Bailey was with DeLuca for the most emotional moments of her life, until his passing in
March 2016.
But just days after his death, she decided to rescue again.
“I knew I had to do something good with Bailey’s loss,” Donya wrote on Facebook
on May 22, 2016.
Despite Adam’s confusion, he went along with his wife’s wishes and they adopted
a German shepherd called Haus.
The family’s fears about the adoption being premature were immediately forgotten.
Donya described the transition in an interview with the Today show on May 16, 2016.
“Haus just bonded with all of us so quickly,” Donya reported.
“It was like he was always part of our home; even the neighbors took to him.
It was meant to be.”
He especially loved the children and took it upon himself to make sure that they were
safe.
The mom-of-two elaborated, “Especially at night, he’s very protective of the kids.
He follows them around; he takes care of them.”
Additionally, Donya told to local Media that it’s common practice for Haus to patrol
the garden with the intention of guarding his charges.
Two months after his adoption, Haus accompanied little Molly when she wandered outside into
the DeLucas’ yard.
She went to gather up dog toys and the big German shepherd followed her.
However, something other than chew-toys was lurking in the grass that day.
As Molly’s grandmother watched from the doorway, Haus started acting in a strange
way.
She observed him leaping at something in the vegetation several times but each time he
recoiled as if struck.
Consequently, grandma DeLuca went over to investigate.
That’s when Molly’s grandma noticed that Haus had shielded the little girl from an
eastern diamondback rattlesnake.
Diamondbacks are not only the biggest and heaviest rattlesnake in the U.S; they’re
also North America’s deadliest serpent.
In humans, their bite has a 30 percent chance of ending in a fatality.
Although diamondbacks not violent by nature, this one clashed with Haus, who fought to
protect Molly.
The erratic behavior that grandma DeLuca witnessed was Haus attacking the snake.
She also saw the dog recoiling from the serpent’s bite when the diamondback sank its fangs into
him.
For Molly’s part, the whole ordeal terrified her.
“I was really scared,” she told ABC News on May 18, 2016.
Her mother added, “Molly wasn’t particularly paying attention, but she saw the aftermath.”
What the little girl experienced must have been traumatic.
According to grandma DeLuca, the diamondback’s bite left Haus’s leg “pouring” blood.
Furthermore, despite being on his feet, he couldn’t hold any weight on his front paw.
Within minutes, the dog’s condition deteriorated to the point where he couldn’t stand up.
Even more worryingly, Molly’s grandmother could barely tell if Haus was breathing and
he was salivating uncontrollably.
After making sure Molly was OK, she took Haus to an emergency veterinary surgery.
Luckily, it was close by and the vet began immediate snakebite treatment on the German
shepherd.
Donya joined her daughter and mother at the Tampa Bay Veterinary Clinic, where the vets
made a discovery.
Usually, if a snake bites a dog, the canine retreats.
However, Haus was fighting for his family and as Donya put it, he “stood his ground.”
In fact, the diamondback had bitten Haus three times, flooding his system with venom.
He’d absorbed so much of it that veterinarians put him on a drip immediately, delivering
the equivalent of nine anti-venom doses.
Haus also required a blood transfusion as a result of the attack.
As Haus’s life hung in the balance, the unavoidable vet bills increased beyond affordability
for the DeLucas.
But his family couldn’t just let him die.
With that in mind, they set up a crowdfunding page to help with the medical costs.
The public donated far in excess of the DeLucas’ $28,000 goal.
Their GoFundMe campaign actually reached a whopping $51,000.
Haus fought just as hard for his own life as he did for Molly’s and thanks to the
vet’s prompt treatment, he was preparing to go home just seven days later.
DeLuca couldn’t believe how much Haus had recovered in such a short time.
“I would almost say it seems miraculous, based on the turnaround that we had from last
week,” she told ABC News.
“We’re just really, really happy.”
So how is Haus these days?
Well, on May 15, 2017, DeLuca provided an update in response to his curious fans.
“We’ve gotten a lot of requests for updates so I wanted to reach out,” she wrote.
“Haus is doing very well.
He is happy and healthy with very minimal lasting effects.”
Now, this brave dog is giving back to Heidi’s Legacy, the local shelter that he came from.
The DeLucas are acting as foster parents for dogs in need of a home and Haus is helping
them.
Even after such a traumatic experience, you can’t take the hero out
of Haus.