She was mauled while walking down Wayside Lane in Port Royal with her babysitter last week. The pit bull had her by the head when police arrived.
The little girl who struggled to say goodbye after our hospital visit Friday was an absolute chatterbox Tuesday. And when she ran out of things to say, she switched over to songs.
"Like a diamond in the sky,” Daniella sang.
There's another star twinkling, and she's sitting in Port Royal. And in case there's any confusion, she's at her house, not the hospital!
"I'm never going to come back in that hospital,” Daniella said. “Because that is boring.”
Daniella is a “tell it like it is” kind of kid. She likes strawberries, not pizza. She is a princess, and she thinks you'd like to know she is feeling a little bit better.
"A little bit but it still hurts me right here,” she said, pointing to her leg.
While Daniella's mother is happy and thankful to hear her daughter back to her chatty self, a lot of the conversations really disturb her, because they're about what happened. She often brings up the “nasty dog” or the “bad dog,” and at three-years-old, even talks about what took place. Her mother says she remembers it all and tells a story of how she actually held her chin down in order to prevent the dog from grabbing at the front of her neck.
Seeing the scars and hearing candid accounts from Daniella are heartbreaking, but her smiles make coping with this ordeal a little easier. And it's neighbors, some they never even knew, they making that happen.
And for that, Daniella has a message and a hug - on behalf of the princess and her family.
"Thank you. Thank you so much,” she said.
"It's times like this we're reminded there are a lot of good people out there. Daniella's mother says since they left the hospital, the visits have been steady. She's received gifts from her landlord, the Port Royal police, and many of you."
(WSAV, February 22, 2011)
