Dog shot during robbery recovering from surgery

They say only cats have nine lives, but Aslan may beg to differ.

Aslan, a 5-year-old boxer mix, was shot three times early Wednesday when he went to his family’s rescue during a home invasion robbery in the Hollywood Hills.

The dog had to undergo emergency surgery and is lucky to be alive, said Stephen Bilbrey, a veterinary surgeon at the Animal Specialty Group, an animal hospital in Los Angeles.

Three robbers forced their way into the home in the 8200 block of Mannix Drive and demanded that a man open a safe, from which they stole a large quantity of cash, authorities said. Four suspects -- three men and a woman -- were later arrested.

The intruders shot the man in the neck, and when Aslan confronted the assailants, the dog was shot in the neck, shoulder and leg, said Lt. Bob Binder of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood Division.

The male victim is in stable condition, Binder said. The man’s wife and newborn baby were in the house but were unharmed, police said.

Aslan suffered a life-threatening wound when a bullet went through the dog’s neck and chest, puncturing its lungs and diaphragm and lodging in its liver, Bilbrey said.

He said he performed a two-hour surgery that included removing part of the dog’s lungs and extracting the bullet from its liver.

“He’s been doing pretty darn well,” Bilbrey said. “If the bullet had hit one of his major structures, he would have been dead within minutes.”

Bilbrey said the dog is expected to make a full recovery. Aslan is recuperating on a pile of blankets at the animal hospital with an orange cast on one leg. “The owner did tell me that the dog alerted them that people were breaking into their home,” Bilbrey said. “She felt the dog saved their lives.”

The day took another twist when narcotics detectives were called to the Hollywood Hills home Wednesday night after police uncovered evidence during the robbery investigation, Binder said. A search warrant was issued for the house, but he would not say what was found.

my-thuan.tran@latimes.com