Pit bull's heart stops after being stabbed while protecting family home. Now, his tail wags again

A 75-pound rescue pit bull named Pancho loves being called a “good boy" — and more than lives up to the name.

Pancho reached heroic status in June when he fought an armed intruder who broke into his family’s home in Española, New Mexico, one night.

Once Pancho realized there was danger, he fought to protect his humans, a dad, a mom and their daughter, and their home. And Pancho kept fighting, despite the person kicking him multiple times and displacing a disc in his spine, which Pancho’s veterinary team told TODAY.com in a recent interview.

Mattie Allen, the communications director at Española Humane who spoke on behalf of Pancho's family, explained that during the confrontation, Pancho was then stabbed in the neck. However, he still didn't give up on his role as protector: He bit the intruder’s arm, clamped on and would not let go until his owner gave him the signal that the danger had passed.

Eventually, authorities apprehended the assailant, but Pancho’s struggle was far from over.

Pancho’s family scrambled to find overnight care that could treat his life-threatening conditions, rushing to various veterinary clinics until they reached the Española Humane shelter, where Pancho was adopted eight years earlier.

Allen recalls Pancho arriving at the shelter in shock and treating his severe neck injury.

“We had to do a lot of work to treat the area because it was dirty,” she explains.

Allen says that at one point, Pancho stopped breathing. He was given lifesaving chest comprehensions and pumped with medications to prep him for surgery.

The team around him tried to soothe him with reminders that he was a "good boy," and they were amazed that Pancho was so receptive to the words.

"Whenever we called him a ‘good boy,' his tail started thumping," Allen recalls. "Even when they brought him back after his heart stopped, he stopped breathing, he lifted his head, and he wagged his tail.”

Allen adds that she couldn't believe Pancho "was wagging his tail at all the strangers after the most traumatic experience." She also touched on how the canine's actions prove pit bull stereotypes wrong.

“I think pit bulls get such a bad rap in the media, and people might not understand them,” she explains. “You think about how he latched onto this intruder and (someone could) say, ‘Well, maybe he’ll show some sort of aggression to us' — this entire group of strangers trying to help him. No, nothing. He knew we were all there to help.”

After his surgery, Pancho was reunited with his family. Allen recalls how Pancho’s mom was brought to tears when he wobbled into the clinic’s recovery area. His dad dropped to his knees, cradled Pancho’s head in his hands and called his dog a "good boy" over and over again. Everyone in his family agreed that Pancho deserved only rib-eye steaks for the rest of his days.

“Dogs are so loyal to their people that they would die for them,” Allen says, her voice audibly becoming emotional. “It’s unbelievable love every day.

"And there are so many different ways that (dogs) save us every day of our lives," she continues. "(Pancho’s latest experience) happened to be in a very big way, but just knowing that our dogs will stand in front of us and save us, even if they die in the process, is unbelievable to me.”

Now, the worst of Pancho’s recovery is behind him. He is back to walking, though Allen notes that he is still a little bit unsteady.

“He’s a miracle. I do not know how that dog survives... and to have been kicked so hard that his spine was displaced and he’s bleeding out,” she continues.

Since the incident, Pancho's community has celebrated him for his bravery and has sent love in various ways.

The veterinary team provided his surgery for free, and every two to three days, his family brings him back to the clinic to have his wounds rechecked and rebandaged. A separate veterinarian’s office in the area gave Pancho free acupuncture and laser therapy for his spine.

People also shared Pancho’s story on social media and tagged Omaha Steaks, which sent a cooler full of ribeyes just for Pancho.

Allen still helps the family by personally driving to their house to pick up Pancho and bring him to the treatments, then back home again.

“I offered just because I feel so indebted to this dog, you know, for being so brave and heroic and saving his family and connected to him and his story,” she says.

On June 19, a week after his surgery, the veterinary team and community members came together to throw Pancho a barbecue to celebrate the removal of his stitches.

A mariachi band came to serenade him, and locals chipped in to make a special cake filled with peanut butter for Pancho, as well as a cake for the human attendees.

Then, at the end of the party, things began to wind down, and Pancho continued to wag his tail — like the good boy he is.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com