A man, a dog — and how they saved one another
“Sometimes when Savior and I are sitting together and I am petting her, she looks up at me. When I look back at her I think, that face. Her face reflects both sides of humanity. One side, uninjured, shows all the good in people; her gaze up at me is filled with pure unconditional love. Then, the other side, the wounded side with one eye shot out, the side that’s unable to see-- that side shows how dark and evil somebody can be.” Mario Chiozza
REST IN PEACE SAVIOR- OCT. 13th 2020.
Rescue the Mistreated, Save the Injured, Love the Abandoned~ The Savior Foundation
Mario Chiozza’s luck had been bad enough.
He was going through a divorce, running out of money and on his way to work when he saw someone in a white pickup truck throw a dog out onto the interstate (I-40) in Memphis, Tennessee.
He still cries at the thought of what he saw.
Chiozza wasn’t able to turn away. He prayed “God, why would you put this in front of me, why would you put this in my path?”
Chiozza, age 59, had been involved in dog rescue and he happened to have his catchpole with him. He managed to get the bleeding and suffering dog safely into his car. He called into his job, said he wouldn’t be making it in and headed straight to the emergency vet.
He could hear the dog choking on her blood as he drove as fast as he could down Germantown Road. It appeared she had been shot in the eye.
When he got to the closest emergency vet, the doctor on duty happened to be new to the practice. It was her first night. She was shocked at what she saw. She had never seen a dog that had been fought before.
Chiozza had many dog rescue connections. He didn’t have the money to help the dog, but believed he could raise it. “I’ve rescued a lot of dogs,” he told her. She appeared to want to help but she said she could not. She said her hands were tied.
“I couldn’t believe they were not going help this dog” Chiozza exclaims. The vet cleaned up the dog a little bit and gave her a small amount of pain medication and sent him on his way.
He reached out to another vet who was a good distance away, Dr. Gregory Shaw, who said, “I will wait for you and I will be sure she gets treated.” Chiozza then called another friend, Kathy Solomon, who came to be with him. She decided to call a local TV station that came out too. She thought maybe the publicity would help raise some money.
Dr. Shaw was able to save the dog. Because it was near Christmas time, they decided to name the dog Savior.
When the TV segment aired, the Memphis community rose to the occasion and they sent donations that went to care for Savior.
It was never Chiozza’s intention to keep Savior. He knew he was in no position to take on another dog. His goal was to get her to the point of being healthy enough to adopt her out. However, he soon realized that Savior was experiencing separation anxiety and PTSD. “She did not want to be anywhere except where I was,” he said.
This dog had strength he had never seen before. “She would go through a wall to get to me,” he remembers. “She would bend the bars on a kennel to get out to be with me.” He eventually allowed her to sleep with him and she would have nightmares. They were so violent at times, he was afraid she might accidentally bite him in her sleep.
The two became practically inseparable. It became clear adoption was no longer an option. “The connection we had and what we meant to each other, I just couldn’t do it.” Chiozza realized what a great dog she was and how blessed he was to have her in his life. “ She is very special. There is just something about certain dogs, the bond is above and beyond normal.”
Savior required much medical attention. She had heartworms, eye problems, bleeding and she appeared to have given birth too many puppies. She needed to be spayed.
Her story attracted attention nationally and even internationally. People sent gifts of toys and money from all over the world.
The outpouring of love inspired Chiozza to start the Savior Foundation. He wanted to help people help dogs like Savior. “It’s too hard for animals like this to get help,” he thought. So he started an organization that helped with medical expenses for rescued, neglected and abused dogs.
As time passed, Chiozza had a problem with one of his other dogs. He was referred to Dr. Danielle Bayliss, the same vet that turned Savior away that first night she was rescued.
When the two of them realized who each other was, they sat in a room and cried together. She explained that had been her first night on the job, she had never seen anything like that and felt terrible she was unable to help. She had gone home and cried all that night.
He asked her to come to a fundraiser for the Savior Foundation. During that event, Chiozza brought Savior around to each table for people to meet her. When he got to Bayliss’s table she could see Savior was still struggling to breathe and had some blood coming out of her nose. Seeing this, Dr. Bayliss donated an MRI for the dog.
Bayliss found that Savior had a bullet lodged in her nasal cavity. It took her three hours to get it out. Not only had Savior been thrown from a moving car onto the interstate, but also as Chiozza had suspected all along, she had been shot in the head, he believes more than once. It had never shown up before.
Savior recovered. Chiozza started to see the blessings that Savior brought into the world through her suffering.
“Since I started the Savior Foundation, we have probably helped close to 500 animals,” he says choked up. He now sees the love, grace, and meaning that has come into his life as a result of the dog he rescued from the interstate that horrible night. “I needed her, she needed me and we both inspired each other. What we’ve done together is pretty incredible,” he says.
Savior gave Chiozza a sense of fulfillment and purpose.
It has been ten years. The days he has left with Savior are numbered. Now she is aging; her health is declining. “I know her time is coming. I don’t know when it is going to end; this is really going to be incredibly hard. The big things in my life have come because I have helped animals and because of her.”
In the darkest moment of his life, Chiozza found his calling. When Chiozza rescued Savior he was living with no power or heat, it was winter, his home was dark and his marriage was ending. But then good things started happening. It was difficult but there were always little things that would give him hope.
“You think about what Savior was facing, those people who helped were angels” he muses now.
John Robinson, formerly with the Memphis Humane Society, says he has helped his friend Chiozza through many battles of compassion fatigue. The mental anguish in the world of animal rescue is brutal. “You will never meet anyone that cares more about animals than Mario” Robinson says. “He has a heart that is three sizes too big.”
Recently Chiozza has had to curb his rescue efforts; that big heart of his is broken. His heart stopped. He was near death and was brought back to life. His health is limiting what he is able to take on now.
He retired from the Fire Department in 2016 and has handed over the leadership of the Savior Foundation to Elise Salvia.
“I take care of 13 dogs, having animals in my life is everything now” he says. He worries about what will happen to his dogs if he dies. He has kept many of the unadoptable animals. “Many of my dogs can’t be around anyone else,” he says.
Most of all he worries about his best friend Savior. “After all of her abuse, all of her neglect, a shot in the head, being thrown out of a truck, she still loves everybody.”
He is so thankful for her and the gifts she has given the world. “Think of all of that evil that tried to kill her and the good that has come as a result of her story.”
“I believe that God put her in my path” he said with deep gratitude “the outpouring of support for her inspired me to a whole new level. I would have never done all of that without her.”
WRITTEN BY KAREN PULFER FOCHT ©, Memphis, Tennessee
Mario says goodbye. Savior lost his battle with cancer on Oct. 13th, 2020