LOS ANGELES (BBC) - Lady Gaga’s dog-walker has spoken out for the first time from hospital about his “very close call with death”.
Ryan Fischer was shot in the chest last week by a dognapper with a semi-automatic handgun in Hollywood, Los Angeles.
The man and an accomplice took two of Lady Gaga’s bulldogs, Koji and Gustav.
A third bulldog, Miss Asia, was unharmed. Fischer said she was his “guardian angel”.
He credited seeing her next to him with giving him the determination to survive.
“My panicked screams calmed as I looked at her, even though it registered that the blood pooling around her tiny body was my own,” he wrote in an Instagram post on Monday.
“I cradled Asia as best I could, thanked her for all the incredible adventures we’d been on together, apologised that I couldn’t defend her brothers, and then resolved that I would still try to save them… and myself,” Fischer wrote.
He is expected to make a full recovery.
Lady Gaga’s dogs were recovered within two days, after a woman brought the dogs - unharmed - to a Los Angeles police station. Authorities said the woman found the dogs and was uninvolved in the incident. Police have yet to identify any suspects.
Reward money
It is not known if Lady Gaga - who is currently shooting a film in Rome, Italy - will hand the woman the USD 500,000 reward she initially offered for the safe return of the two dogs.
Fischer tagged the pop star in his Instagram post, writing: “your support as a friend, despite your own traumatic loss from your kids, was unwavering”.
“Your babies are back and the family is whole… we did it!”
He wrote that, although his life had “taken a very sudden and unexpected turn”, he was glad the dogs were safe and hoped the criminals would be brought to justice.
Two of Lady Gaga’s French bulldogs were stolen, after a gunman shot her dog-walker in Hollywood, Los Angeles.
A male suspect fired a semi-automatic handgun at the dog-walker, before making off with the dogs.
The victim was transported to hospital in an unknown condition, Los Angeles Police confirmed to the BBC.
Lady Gaga earlier offered a reward for the return of her dogs, Koji and Gustav.
A third bulldog, Miss Asia ran away and was later recovered by police.
Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, is currently in Rome working on a new Ridley Scott film, Gucci.
This is not an isolated incident involving French bulldogs. There have been several cases, around the United States, sometimes involving violent assaults on their owners, where the animals have been stolen.
In January, a woman in San Francisco was attacked at gunpoint by three men who escaped with her five-month-old puppy.
French bulldogs are hugely popular and in much demand, but they are notoriously difficult to breed. They require artificial insemination and the physical characteristics of the dog - a large head and shoulders - mean they usually have to be delivered by Caesarean section.
The breeding costs explain the price tag of a puppy, which can range from USD 2,000-10,000.
