A house fire almost ended Taka’s life, burning most of his face and stomach, but he’s got a lot to live for today, and an amazing human to live with.
Taka was inside a screened-in porch when the fire started. His family was unable to get close enough to save him. They ran from the house, leaving Taka back inside.
Taka didn’t give up.
Taka was badly burned in a house fire.
He worked his way out of the blaze and ran down the street. Hair was singed off most of Taka’s face and belly. He was covered in burns and in serious need of help. Luckily, a neighbor nearby found Taka and rushed him to the emergency vet.
“He had burns around his eyes, his mouth, his ears, his belly,” Emily Martin, a veterinarian at the Care More Animal Hospital in Martinez, Georgia, told The Dodo. “We really didn’t know how severe his injuries were initially, just because we had to worry about inhalation burns.”
Taka’s burns had the vets worried. His eyesight was damaged beyond repair, and the veterinary team was forced to bring him to the University of Georgia for oxygen treatments.
Taka still didn’t give up.
It must have been a harrowing experience. Taka’s yelps could be heard throughout the hospital, but he had the best vets around working to save his life. Martin wasn’t going to let him down.
“I try to treat my patients all the same, but his case pulled at my heartstrings a bit more,” Martin said. “When he came in, he was screaming from pain … but he calmed down the moment you sat with him and started singing to him.”
After explaining to Taka’s family what had happened to their dog, and the intensive care he may need going forward, they let him stay with Martin. And as Taka’s lifeline, Martin knew she couldn’t let him sleep alone in his weakened condition.
So, she brought him home.