BEAUMONT, Texas — Austyn Clanton, 9, is home at last.
You may remember his story which caught the eyes of many Texans.
Clanton had to be airlifted to Houston after the family bulldog attacked him inside the Beaumont house on October 12.
His injuries required 13 surgeries which practically made a hospital bed his new home.
Yet, that changed Wednesday night when Clanton returned home for the first time.
"I thought we were not going to go home," Clanton said.
It's the moment his family had desperately wished for.
Clanton still has a long road to recovery ahead, but returning to a sense of normalcy is just what the doctor ordered.
"It's just like can we get back to normal," Clanton's father Brad said. "Normal just seems like so long ago at this point."
Clanton had been inside Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston for more than a month, undergoing 13 surgeries to repair his left bicep.
His family originally hoped to bring him home after a couple weeks.
Unfortunately, Clanton suffered two artery bleeds including one that resulted in him coding.
"He's not even on Tyenol for pain," Clanton's mother Vannessa said. "So for him to go through this and still be happy and smiling, he was dancing today."
The family says Clanton and one of his brothers were playing at their home on October 12.
All of the sudden Mattis, a three-year-old American Bulldog, bit Clanton's arm and drug him across the living room.
The Clanton family tells 12News the incident came as a shock.
Mattis had been with the family his whole life, fully trained and never showed aggression toward the kids.
Following the attack, the Clantons decided to put their dog down despite Austyn's wish for him to stay with the family.
"It was a tough decision, we're big time dog people but it was the right choice," Vannessa said. "
When Clanton walked up the driveway with a cast on his arm and scratches on his neck, the first person he saw was his older bother Tristan who gave him a hug.
Perhaps the most excited Wednesday night was Clanton's younger brother, Jordan.
"I know what my little brother missed the most, me," Clanton said.
Despite what Mattis did to him, Clanton shows no signs of fearing dogs and says he didn't want Mattis to be put down.
"I'm still going to be a dog trainer," Clanton said.
The return to Beaumont is a positive sign, but the fight is not over.
He still has scratches on his face and only 10% of his left bicep remaining.
The risk of infection and future problems are still there, with of course the uncertainty if he'll ever be able to fully use the arm again.
Clanton will have to travel back to Houston every week for several months to make sure he's healthy and progressing.
"He can move his wrist, which is a little bit different muscle," Brad said. "They're thinking he will be able to curl, but we don't know when."
On a positive note, Clanton is upright and walking which he hadn't been able to do until a few days ago.
He says he wasn't too happy about missing Halloween while in the hospital.
However, during his stay in Houston, Clanton did celebrate his 9th birthday as well as dress up as Captain America, his favorite superhero.
A perfect symbol to describe Clanton's toughness throughout this experience.
"He's the strongest kid we know," Vannessa said.
The Clanton Family wants to thank the doctors and nurses and Memorial Hermann, Legacy Christian Academy (where Austyn goes to school) and overwhelming support from the community.