Doreen Millichip was walking her Jack Russell, Susie, through a jitty near Porter's Lane in Oakwood at 11am on Friday when she stopped to talk to a woman walking two greyhounds.
Miss Millichip said they were talking about their pets – and of her son, Rod, who has a greyhound of his own – when one of them bit Susie on the leg.
Miss Millichip, 65, said: "There was nothing to provoke it at all. We were just talking when the dog lurched for my dog and yanked her leg.
"All three were on their leads and were fine until the attack happened. It took everyone by surprise.
"The other woman was just shouting 'pull, pull, pull' for me to get Susie away. She was pulling the other way and it took a lot of force. There were some gardeners doing some work on a house in Porter's Lane and they came running when they heard the noise.
"If they hadn't have come, I'm sure Susie would have been killed. It was the noise that made the greyhound let go."
Miss Millichip was pulled to the floor during the struggle but after the attack the woman walked off, leaving her there.
The mum-of-two said that the incident had left her shaken and afraid to walk Susie.
She said: "I've lived around here for 25 years and I've never felt like this before.
"I'm worried to go out and I'm scared about it happening again. It's very isolated where it happened and if the gardeners hadn't heard, I'd have been left there with just my dog, unable to get up.
"It's really shaken me up, I still can't really believe it."
Susie was taken straight to Abby Vets on Nottingham Road for treatment and had to have surgery, costing £300.
Miss Millichip said: "The gardeners looked after me straight after the attack, but the woman just walked off. I called my son and we took Susie to the vets. She had to have emergency surgery on her leg.
"She's walking on it at the moment, but we don't know the full extent of the damage to her leg muscle yet."
Miss Millichip said that she wants the woman with the greyhounds, whom she believes was in her 40s, to come forward.
She said: "The dogs were not muzzled but are obviously a danger. They looked like they raced and, if they've got a bad streak, they might do it again and there could be far worse consequences."
(Derby Telegraph - March 19, 2012)
