Editor's Note: Although we've added a touch of humor to this story, to the best of our knowledge, this story was based on a real incident. All the details and the quotes come from the original article from a local Utah newspaper.

As the saying goes, "Dogs are man's best friend." A dog should stand by your side no matter what. So you know you're having a bad day when you get shot in the back by your own dog.

That's what happened to a 46-year old Utah man. At 8:30 A.M. on the north end of the Great Salt Lake near the bird refuge, the duck hunting enthusiast (who was not named in the local news reports) and his dog were drifting in a canoe-type boat. When the man stepped into the marsh to set up some decoys, he left his 12-guage shotgun resting across the bow of the boat.

According to Kevin Potter, the local sheriff's deputy, that's when the dog "did something to make the gun discharge." Apparently the excited dog jumped on the boat's bow and stepped on the gun. The gun went off, shooting the man in the "buttocks" with 27 pellets of birdshot.

Deputy Potter wouldn't speculate about the dog's motives for the shooting. Although he would say, "(The dog) did something to make the gun discharge. I don't know if the safety device was on. It's [possible] the dog could have taken it off safety."

Police called the incident an "accident." No charges have been filed and the dog still isn't talking.

Preaching Angles: (1) Teamwork, Disunity—Sometimes the people we thought were on our team are the ones who shoot us in the back. (2) Relationships, Trust—This could also provide a lighthearted illustration about relationships—as in, "If you can't trust your dog—'man's best friend'—then who can you trust? Sometimes the people (or even the pets) we trust the most let us down." (3) Stress, Troubles—You could use this story as to set up a sermon on how to deal with the routine bad days and tough life circumstances we all face—as in, "You know you're having a bad day when your own dog shoots you in the buttocks. Sometimes life feels that way, doesn't it?"