Gavin Clark, three, was playing with his grandmother's dog Ezio in her Texas backyard on July 11 when the neighbor's vicious dog broke through the fence and charged at him.
Ezio, weighing just 11 pounds, leaped to Gavin's defense.
As the toddler ran inside for his grandmother, the big dog picked Ezio up by the neck and shook him violently before slamming him down.
'The dog was 10 times the size of Ezio. This big giant dog, if it stands up, is as tall as me,' Gavin's grandmother Shannon Long told KHOU. 'The dog is ferocious.'
Ezio's neck and spinal cord snapped and his trachea was crushed in the attack.
Long said she rushed the Yorkie to a veterinarian, paying $5,000 to keep him alive.
'We don’t have a lot of money. We have three kids and two grand kids,' Long, from Dickinson in Texas, said.
'My daughter emptied her bank account. My husband and I emptied our bank account.'
However the family refuses to give up on the hero Yorkie, who has a close bond with Gavin. They are raising money on GoFundMe to cover Ezio's $10,000 surgery and treatment, with about $1,700 donated so far.
'The doctor said, well, you’ll have to put him down,' Long said.
'I just can’t do that. He saved Gavin’s life, and I can’t give up on his.'
According the fundraising page, Ezio has had two lifesaving surgeries but is paralyzed on his left side.
He may never walk or play again without further surgery on his spinal cord and C2 vertebrae. Living only on baby food, he has lost nearly two pounds in two days.
'He is like a newborn baby,' the family wrote on the fundraising page.
'He is unable to control his pottying and cannot walk due to the spinal cord and fractured neck injuries.'
Long said her landlord has installed a new fence, however she has had ongoing problems with the neighbor's dog.
KHOU reported the neighbor was not available for comment.
(Daily Mail - July 28, 2014)
