SEATTLE — Two years after Lauren Wiggins says her dog, Judah, took two bullets while protecting her during a shooting, she is trying to return the favor.
Complications from Judah’s injuries now require surgery that Wiggins says will cost at least $10,000. Unable to cover the expense on her own, she turned to strangers for help and says she has been overwhelmed by the response.
“He did save my life and he did get shot twice doing so,” Wiggins said.
Wiggins said the shooting happened in 2024 as she was preparing to leave the home she shared with an ex. She said her parents had helped her develop a plan to leave and she was packing when her ex pulled out a gun and began shooting.
“My ex walked into our bedroom, went in the underwear drawer, grabbed his gun and started shooting,” Wiggins said.
Wiggins was shot twice in her right leg. She says the shooting left her paralyzed on that side from the knee down.
“I think I just kind of went numb,” she said. “It was kind of like a movie scene. Everything went quiet.”
Then Judah rushed in.
“He came right in, attacked him, but he got shot in the head and in the shoulder in the process of doing that,” Wiggins said.
Wiggins initially thought Judah was dying on the ground. She said adrenaline took over and she ran to get help, not knowing whether her dog would survive.
It wasn’t until she was at the hospital that she learned Judah was alive.
“Oh, it was really emotional. My heart dropped in my stomach,” she said. “I’m thinking about what he did for me.”
Bullet fragments begin causing problems
According to Wiggins, Judah’s veterinarian initially determined it would be safer to leave bullet fragments inside his body rather than attempt to remove them. For roughly two years, she said, he appeared to tolerate them.
That changed this summer.
Wiggins noticed the middle of Judah’s head beginning to swell and said he developed a hard lump. A veterinary visit confirmed the fragments were moving, she said, creating the possibility they could eventually migrate toward his eyes.
Now Judah needs surgery.
Wiggins said even the lower estimates she received were around $10,000 after a hands-on examination, without really knowing what’s going on inside.
“I felt so much guilt that he stepped in to save me,” Wiggins said. “I wish in a lot of ways that he didn’t so that he wouldn’t have to be dealing with what he is now.”
Wiggins said she is the sole provider for herself and her dogs. Faced with Judah’s mounting veterinary costs, she decided to ask others for help.
She started a GoFundMe. She wasn’t prepared for the response.
‘It was really nice and overwhelming to see that people actually cared’
For Wiggins, the support has come to mean more than help with Judah’s medical bills.
She said the court process after the shooting left her feeling as though what she and Judah had endured didn’t matter.
“It was really overwhelming,” Wiggins said. “The process of going through the courts trying to get restitution for what happened to Judah and I was terrible. We got nothing but a restraining order and kind of just was like, ‘Well, sorry that happened to you.’”
Now, she said, the response from strangers has given her something she didn’t expect.
“It was really nice and overwhelming to see that people actually cared, because for a long time I felt like I guess we don’t really matter,” Wiggins said.
And Judah is more than the dog who Wiggins credits with saving her life.
After everything that happened, she said, he is one of the few pieces of her old life she still has.
“He’s like the only thing that I was able to take with me after everything happened,” Wiggins said.
She calls Judah her best friend and her “wingman.”
“I mean, there will never be another dog like him,” Wiggins said.