A mother and daughter have made a plea for owners to control aggressive dogs after their Jack Russell was left fighting for his life after a vicious attack.
Renee Savage, of Wellsfield, West Wittering, was visiting friends in the Wiltshire village of Stanton St Quinton near Chippenham when nine-year-old Sonny was attacked by another dog.
Sonny suffered large, gaping flesh wounds.
The injury was so bad the vet did not expect him to survive, but miraculously Sonny pulled through thanks to being slightly overweight.
The attack happened when Sonny was taken for a walk by Mrs Savage's friend's 14-year-old daughter and her 13-year-old friend, who also has a Jack Russell.
As the girls walked along the country lane, they heard a man on a skateboard behind them.
As he came closer, they saw he had a pitbull-type cross dog with him and he shouted 'pick up your dogs'. His dog then lunged at Sonny, sinking his teeth into him as the terrified girls could only watch.
The man eventually managed to pull his dog off Sonny, and then fled, leaving the girls to try to calm Sonny.
Mrs Savage said: "I received a distraught call from one of the girls saying Sonny had been attacked. For the man to just leave like that was awful.
"Thank God they didn't pick up the dog, because who knows what could have happened. It could have attacked one of them."
Vets carried out a several-hour operation on Sonny, grafting skin on to the wound because it was too deep to be able to stitch.
"They lost count of the stitches he had. He had a blood transfusion and the vet said, in 14 years, he had never seen a dog with attack injuries so serious."
Mrs Savage contacted the police and the dog warden, although she was told because it was a dog-on-dog attack, there is little they can do.
Mrs Savage's daughter Julie said the attack had made her more wary when around other dogs. "It's awful an attack should happen to a human before the authorities can do anything," said Julie.
Sonny has now had his stitches removed and is recovering at home following his ordeal. "He's doing really well, he's a real little trooper," said Mrs Savage.
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The full article contains 462 words and appears in OS-Chichester Observer newspaper.
