LUTZ - If things had turned out differently Sunday, Gizmo the 7-pound dog would have been Easter dinner.
The dappled gray Maltese-toy poodle mix wriggled his way through a hole in the porch screen at his home on Sandy Springs Circle in Lutz and ran down to the edge of a pond behind the house.
His owners, Mike and Cathy Piendel, were sitting on the porch enjoying the sunset. Cathy Piendel was talking to a friend on the phone when suddenly the couple heard Gizmo yelp again and again.
They looked toward the water. An alligator had their dog.
The alligator had grabbed the dog by the ear and pulled him under the water once. When the Piendels saw him, Gizmo had managed to get halfway back to the shore and the alligator was clamping down on one of the 18-month-old dog's back thighs. Cathy Piendel ran out the door, screaming.
The alligator let go and sank beneath the surface of the water.
Gizmo has puncture wounds on his ear and back leg. The family's veterinarian, Tony Qureishi of Animal and Exotic Medical Center in Lutz, said it's amazing Gizmo survived.
Gizmo is on antibiotics for 14 days and painkillers, but the veterinarian expects him to make a full recovery.
"Not one broken bone; no internal bleeding," Cathy Piendel said. "His white blood cell count is 10 times the normal level, but that's because of the infection" from the alligator bite.
A neighbor called animal control but was told it could take five days for a trapper to arrive. In the meantime, the Piendels have marked the tear in the screen and plan to repair it today.
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