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| These photos are heartbreaking. It's not unusual to see women loving on their pets, but to see a grown man to openly show affection for his little Gidget makes me want to cry |
PENNSYLVANIA — Heavily sedated, Gidget can barely move her big brown eyes, but this Chihuahua is alive and that’s saying something.
“And I have hopes and dreams that she’ll be fine, but I know she’s been through a lot,” Nancy Laspada said.
She and her husband Tony are brokenhearted.
“I don’t want to recall it,” says Tony.
Tuesday morning, Tony, with Gidget on her leash, took their daily walk through their Ross Township neighborhood.
“And she’s kissing the mailman and he’s petting her and calling her his beautiful girl,” he said.
Moments later, without warning Tony and Gidget were attacked.
“I turned around just to see the two pit bulls lunging at us,” he said.
Tony reached for Gidget who was being mauled and mutilated.
“We had a lot of trauma to deal with,” says surgeon, Dr. Tony Pardo of Pittsburgh Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Services.
After nearly two hours of surgery, Gidget had lost a kidney, has two crushed ribs in addition to chest and belly wounds.
“Gidget had teeth that basically sheared through her tissues and damaged her internal organs,” Dr. Pardo said.
Tony says this is not the first time his neighbor’s pit bulls may have jumped the fence and run loose.
“I had complained to him in either June or July,” he said.
Those neighbors were not answering their door.
“They’re supposed to issue a citation of dangerous pets,” Tony said.
Tony has filed a police report. He also has bites on both hands, scrapes on his knees and a chunk missing from his nose suffered in rescuing Gidget.
“I just wish I was quicker,” he said.
The two pit bulls are being held at Triangle Pet Control in McKees Rocks for a 10-day quarantine. Then the case goes to a magistrate.
Gidget will likely need more surgery to repair her wounds, so she’s not out of the woods yet. Tony says he hopes they’ll never see that pair of pit bulls on their walks ever again.
(KDKA - August 31, 2011)
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