The Pooper Scooper

 Dog Attack-What would you do?

On New Years Day, my husband and I walked our dog, Chloe-a 7 year old blue heeler mix-at Woodlawn Lake in San Antonio. We walk there frequently, usually twice a week for an average of 2 miles. We often encounter stray dogs-at least one per walk. They have never caused a problem and we have been walking there for over 3 years.

We had just begun our walk when we noticed an alert tan dog with a black face dragging a heavy chain leash behind him trotting toward us head-on. He looked like a Bull Mastiff. Most dogs circle toward the rear to sniff but this one charged-with head raised. Our dog was not handling this approach well. She sort of lunged on her short leash-and my husband tried to get her to sit. The Bull Mastiff tried to mount Chloe, but she sat so he couldn't. That's when the fight happened.

The dog had Chloe underneath her and my husband tried to get him off of her?he kicked it in the chest and head-but this dog wouldn't get off. The whole time my husband had a hold of Chloe's leash-which may or may not have been a good thing. I was screaming my head off trying to get help (which may or may not have been a good thing). Finally after about a minute of fighting-someone-I assume the owner-came over and grabbed the end of the chain leash and tried to pull him off. But the dog's jaws were locked. The owner couldn't get him off either. I kept screaming at the man to "Hit him in the f**king face!" The whole time Chloe was screaming something awful--horrible hoarse screams.

I searched through the grass for something to hit the dog with. The best I could find was a 7 inch long stick. When I came back the owner and my husband were still struggling. The man told me to hit the dog. I hit that dog as hard as I could in the face 6 or seven times before he finally let go.

Chloe, remarkably seemed to be okay-but she has a lot of fur around her neck so we weren't sure of her injuries. We told the owner we thought she was okay. The owner wandered off. We probably should have gotten his name or something but we were too shaken to think straight. Just then a couple of guys approached and one had a tire iron. They told us we should call the police. We said, ?Yeah, we should.? But we didn't have a cell phone or anything--so we just left and took Chloe to the Emergency vet. We spent $300 on stitching and meds.

When we were leaving the vet, a man recognized us from Woodlawn Lake. His dog-a beagle had been attacked about a ? hour later by the same dog. But this time the owner was not around. He said it took 4 guys to get that dog off of his Beagle. He said he'd been walking his dog at the lake for nine years and have never seen anything like that.

We're just thankful that both dogs are going to be okay. We both reported the incident to the police. Hopefully, the dog was caught (and put down) later that day. From now on I'm not leaving the house unless I have mace and a long, thick stick.