By Mary Alice Murphy

2017091395085617Just one of the wounds Toney experienced

Last Wednesday, September 13, Annette Toney, a resident of Arenas Valley, took her usual early-morning walk, although a bit earlier than usual, and left her house at 6:39. "I always check my phone because I want to walk for an hour. I walk past this house just about every day of the week."

But on this particular morning at about 6:45, as she walked by the house where she had seen three other dogs, but never before, the pit bull "came at me with the intention of doing harm and did. It bit my head at least twice. I had a hole about 1½-2 inches around, which now, of course, is stitched up. It also bit me in the upper thigh, shoulder, twice on my back and two bites on my butt. My arm is bruised from the elbow to the shoulder. " The dog knocked her down, and she struggled to get to her feet as the dog continued to maul her. "I was screaming for help, while I tried to get away from it."

She finally managed to get to her feet, but she said her neck hurt immediately because of the fall and the hole in the back of her head.

When she got up, the dog continued tearing at her. She called her husband to pick her up and take her to the hospital. As she tried to get away from the dog, the next-door neighbor opened the door, let Toney in, and the dog ran away. The neighbor told her the dog had lived at the house several months.

Toney said the service at the emergency room was wonderful. "Maybe nobody else was there for the ER, but with blood pouring off my head, I was inside the ER within less than five minutes. The hospital called the sheriff and the Humane Society. It was the first time I had had to have stitches for a wound, other than from surgery."

An officer from the Sheriff's Department came quickly, as did Buddy Howard from the Animal Shelter. The dog was picked up and later that afternoon euthanized, according to what Toney was told. "They tested the dog for rabies, but it did not have rabies."

Toney said: "I have to wonder how people can think these are good pets for families with children." The house where the dog came from has a family with several children.

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