Startribune – Nine-year-old Buster fought so hard to protect his home that he shattered several teeth as he chomped on his attacker’s hunting knife. He also suffered gashes to his throat, shoulder and jowls. “Every room of my house was filled with blood. It was like a murder scene,” said Larry Wagaman, who returned home to the crime scene about 10:20 a.m. Thursday at his east St. Paul house. Buster, a fawn boxer who survived his latest surgery on Monday, was home alone while Wagaman went on a 20-minute run to buy supplies for a weekend bow-hunting trip. Wagaman, an Anoka County corrections officer, returned to find Buster slumped in his basement kennel in a puddle of blood and gasping for air through a sucking neck wound. Wagaman wasn’t surprised Buster fought so hard to protect the house he’s lived in since he was a puppy.”He’s a dog that comes around every 100 years. He’s just awesome,” Wagaman said. Buster “fought him off every room they were in.” Buster’s Monday surgery was to repair his face wounds and to extract broken teeth.The dog’s care exceeded $3,000 — before the latest surgery. “That’s a lot of money, but I don’t care. He’s a hero,” Wagaman said. Still whiny and sore, Buster’s getting TLC at home from 16-year-old Brandie Wagaman, who is sharing a sleeping bag with Buster on the living room floor. Although he’s been moving slowly, Buster has resumed his post as watch commander at the house. Wagaman said: “Even with all the wounds, he wants to sit up and look out the window.”

A new day and a new reminder on why dogs are the absolute best creatures in the world. I mean there are lots of great qualities about dogs, but this may be their best. Their courage. It’s not that dogs don’t get scared because everybody who has a dog has seen their dog get scared about something. It’s just that they don’t give a fuck when their home or somebody they love is threatened. They don’t have a self preservation mode like humans do. They will fight to the death protecting what they believe in. That’s just how they role. Like poor Buster was getting stabbed all over the place but as his owner said he kept fighting them off in every room they were in. The cat thing to do would have been to just lay low and pretend nothing was wrong. Well dogs can’t and won’t accept that. They’d rather die than let somebody hurt the things or people they care about. Buster was just doing what dogs do without hesitation and he’d do it again in a heartbeat. That’s what makes a dog a dog.

And in other awesome dog stories a pit bull saved a ladies life and won a community service award and a seeing eye dog has helped a blind chick run cross country and given her a new lease on life in the feel good story of the day.