A 2-year-old Great Pyrenees is being hailed a hero after bravely defending his flock of sheep from a large pack of coyotes.

Casper lives in Decatur, Georgia with his sheep, chickens, and owner, John Weirville. As a livestock dog, Casper is used to staying out with the animals and protecting them from wildlife, like bears, raccoons, and coyotes.

However, his guardian duties took a serious turn in early November, when around a dozen coyotes attacked.

According to Atlanta News First, John explained that Casper was watching the flock of sheep one night when a pack of around 12 coyotes started to approach.

Some of the coyotes entered the sheep pen and Casper immediately sprung into action to save his flock.

The brave dog ended up killing 8 of the coyotes and ran off after the others. While all the sheep remained unharmed thanks to Casper’s heroic efforts, John began to worry for the dog when he didn’t return home after running the coyotes off.

“So the next day, we thought we could find him, we thought he must have been killed and so we were looking for him. If he wasn’t killed, we figured he was hurt, we knew he was hurt, because we found parts of his tail and blood and other things, so we were worried about him,” John said, according to Atlanta News Fisrt.

Two days after the attack, John feared the worst but then he saw something sticking out of the chicken coop. It was Casper!

Casper had returned home but he looked awful like he was on the brink of death.

John immediately got the pup to a veterinarian where he underwent multiple surgeries. He had to stay at the vet for over a month and is expected to continue healing for several more months. Thankfully, he’s expected to make a full recovery.