Sonny "Tex" Gilligan, 74, was shot by his dog, Charlie, in a bizarre accident while on a hunting trip Thursday, Oct. 25. Gilligan survived and is on the road to recovery. (Photo: Photos provided by Mark Gilligan) 
 
 LAS CRUCES - Charlie's still a good dog. 
 
 That's what Sonny "Tex" Gilligan said days after Charlie — his 120-pound Rottweiler mix — accidentally shot him. 
 
 Gilligan, 74, a Doña Ana County resident, told the Sun-News that Charlie and his two other dogs — Scooter and Cowboy — went with him to hunt for jackrabbits in the desert west of Las Cruces on Thursday, Oct. 25. 
 
 Gilligan was in the driver's seat of his parked pickup truck, along with the dogs, when he was shot. 
 
 "Charlie got his foot in the trigger of the gun and I leaned forward and he slipped off the seat and caught the trigger — and it shot," Gilligan said. "It was a freak accident but it's true, that's what happened." 
 
 MORE: Dog shoots hunter after man leaves shotgun on ground 
 
 The shotgun — in the backseat of the pickup, along with Charlie — fired through Gilligan's front driver's seat. The bullet went through Gilligan's back, breaking a few ribs and shattering his collar bone, and caused other, severe injuries. 
 
 Gilligan said he initially thought someone from outside the vehicle had shot him, but soon realized the shot came from his own gun. 
 
 Sonny Gilligan's two other dogs — Scooter, forefront, and Cowboy, in back — were also in the vehicle when Gilligan was shot by his third dog, Charlie. Gilligan is expected to make a full recovery. (Photo: Provided by Mark Gilligan) 
 
 "I was very fortunate I could get to my phone," Gilligan said. "The DASO (Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office) first-responders saved my life. If they waited 10 more minutes I would’ve died. I lost so much blood. I know I actually passed to the other side just before getting to the hospital but they were able to revive me through CPR and bring me back. I have so much appreciation to the doctors and first-responders who saved my life." 
 
 Gilligan's 911 call came in at 12:33 p.m. He told dispatchers he was at the railroad tracks near the intersection of County Roads B4 and B5. 
 
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 Sheriff’s deputies, Border Patrol agents and New Mexico State Police went to the scene and found Gilligan next to his truck with a gunshot wound to the chest. He was transported via helicopter to University Medical Center in El Paso. 
 
 Gilligan underwent several surgeries, and, though he's in critical condition, he should recover. He said he's being transferred to a rehabilitation center in Las Cruces on Wednesday. 
 
 'Poor Charlie' 
 
 Gilligan said Charlie, Scooter and Cowboy were sent to "jail" — the Animal Service Center of the Mesilla Valley — following the shooting. 
 
 "Poor Charlie, he's a good dog," Gilligan said. "The sheriff's department said the only one they had trouble with was Cowboy. The other two were friendly. Charlie is the boss, but he's gentle." 
 
 Gilligan joked that his son was able to "bond out" the dogs. 
 
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 "It was an accident, although they tease me asking me if he did it on purpose," Gilligan said. "Truth is, (Charlie's) a big, loving dog and would never hurt anybody on purpose." 
 
 Gilligan's son, Mark Gilligan, said he wasn't surprised to hear one of the dogs accidentally shot his father. 
 
 "They're kind of rowdy. They’re pretty rambunctious and full of energy," Mark said. "That’s why the owners gave them up. My dad has four acres of land so they can run free. So, it didn’t surprise me at all. When they see a cow or other animal they want to jump in the front." 
 
 Gilligan said he still loves all his dogs. He said he rescued them all as puppies. 
 
 "They're all rescue dogs. Charlie was advertised as a free puppy in El Paso," Gilligan said. "I got one of them at a flea market for $20 and adopted one." 
 
 Jacqueline Devine can be reached at 575-541-5476, JDevine@lcsun-news.com or @JackieIsDevine on Twitter. 
 
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 A dog named Charlie shot a man named "Tex" on the way to a jackrabbit hunt in the New Mexico desert. 
 
 “It went through my ribs my lung and busted up my collarbone on the right side," victim Tex Harold Gilligan told ABC News. "I had a gaping hole, you know, and a lot of blood there too,” Gilligan said. “I could see the blood and I felt it,” he said. 
 
 Gilligan, 74, was left with three broken ribs, and injured lung, a broken collarbone and three very agitated dogs -- Charlie chief among them. 
 
 Courtesy Tex Gilligan 
 
 Gilligan said that he had loaded up his pickup truck with his gun and his trio of dogs -- Charlie, Scooter and Cowboy -- climbed into the driver's seat, and headed out to the desert west of Las Cruces to hunt jackrabbits. 
 
 Charlie 120-pound Rottweiler mix got his foot in the trigger of the gun, caught the trigger and blasted a shot at his unsuspecting owner, who said that at first he thought he'd been hit by a sniper from a distance. 
 
 “I thought who was that?" Gilligan told ABC News. 
 
 "I was there, isolated, nobody was around." 
 
 Gilligan said he normally doesn't bring his cell phone along when he's hunting, but due to recent heavy rains, he decided to bring it in case he needed to call his kid if he got stuck in the rain. 
 
 He rolled out of the truck and called 911. 
 
 “ ” I never thought that this would happen. It’s an interesting story: a dog shot a man! 
 
 Law enforcement officers from the Doña Ana County Sheriff's office, the New Mexico State Police and U.S. Customs and Border Protection responded to the scene and found Gilligan lying next to his truck with a gunshot wound to the chest. 
 
 The investigation to date appears to suggest that Charlie, who was riding at the front seat of his truck, slipped and got his claw caught on the trigger of the shotgun. 
 
 “The gun was positioned in the truck with the barrel facing up, towards Mr. Gilligan,” Doña Ana County Sheriff's spokeswoman Kelly Jameson told ABC News. 
 
 “Apparently Mr. Gilligan ... had placed his gun in the floorboard of the truck with the butt of the gun on the floorboard,” Jameson said. 
 
 Gilligan first told the dispatch that he accidentally shot himself. 
 
 “The investigation is being handled as an accidental shooting,” Jameson told ABC News. 
 
 Gilligan was taken to an area hospital, where doctors determined it would be best to leave the bullet inside him, for fear of damaging his pierced lung. 
 
 “ ” It went through my ribs my lung and busted up my collarbone on the right side. I had a gaping hole, you know, and a lot of blood there too. 
 
 “The incident left him with three broken ribs, a punctured lung and a broken scapula,” Jameson said. 
 
 In the end, Gilligan maintained a healthy sense of humor about his colorful ordeal. 
 
 “I never thought that this would happen," Gilligan told ABC News, laughing. 
 
 "It’s an interesting story: ‘a dog shot a man!’” 
 
 Gilligan said he has long since forgiven Charlie. 
 
 “[Charlie] did not mean to do it,” he said. "He's a good dog."
– When Sonny "Tex" Gilligan was shot in the back, he initially thought he was being fired on from outside his vehicle. Then he remembered the shotgun he had left in the backseat of his pickup with Charlie, his 120-pound Rottweiler mix, and two other dogs. The 74-year-old, who was sitting in the driver's seat when he was shot, had brought the dogs to hunt jackrabbits in the desert near Las Cruces, New Mexico. "Charlie got his foot in the trigger of the gun and I leaned forward and he slipped off the seat and caught the trigger—and it shot," Gilligan tells the Las Cruces Sun News. "It was a freak accident but it's true, that's what happened." He says Charlie is a good dog and it wasn't his fault. Gilligan was able to call 911, but he says he lost so much blood he "passed to the other side" on the way to the hospital before he was revived with CPR. He was hospitalized with three broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a broken collarbone. He has undergone several surgeries since the Oct. 25 incident but doctors expect him to survive, ABC reports. His son, Mark Gilligan, has a lot of praise for the deputies who rushed to the scene 14 miles out of town. "The Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office is the real hero here—without them, he was dead," he tells the Santa Fe New Mexican. He jokes that after the "rambunctious" dogs were taken to the pound, he had to "bust them out of jail." (This woman in Indiana was shot by a dog named Trigger.)