Police and paramedics were called to the neighborhood on Sunny Drive, near the Hardy Toll Road and Hopper, after the dogs chased one woman and then rushed toward Rigo Cruz, biting his hand and wrist around 11 a.m.
"I threw my Coke bottle," said Cruz, adding, "I was scared, man."
He said the dogs had their tails up and teeth bared as they charged toward him near his front porch.
As he tried to escape, he tripped and fell back against his house, saying he feared the dogs would clamp their teeth down on him once he hit the ground.
"They were trying to grab me by my leg, but I kept swinging at them and I hit him in the nose, told him to get off me and he got off me," said Cruz.
Next door neighbor Elly Barrientez said she was trembling as the pack of dogs rushed her on her front porch.
"I got a stick and I hit the pole there, but nuh uh, that didn't do it. So I had to run inside because he would have bit me," she said.
Neighbors report that stray dogs often cause trouble in their area of northeast Houston, but Barrientez said clanging the board on her loud porch post usually frightens the dogs away from her. This time, she said, they were too aggressive to be fazed by her tactic.
"I had to run into the house and shut the door as quickly as possible," she said.
Barrientez was not bitten, but paramedics checked out the broken skin on Cruz' wrist and hand. He declined a trip to the hospital, and he said he was glad that his girlfriend opened the door for him to rush off his porch and cause the dogs to scatter.
"She opened the door and they were gone," he said.
Girlfriend Nani Rosas said she had no idea that Cruz was in such a struggle on their porch, but she was happy with the ending.
"Ain't nothing wrong with him. He's alright. That's a good thing," she said.
Neighbors called animal control officers from the Houston Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care (BARC), but no progress was reported in catching the dogs. Sky 2 flew over the area shortly after the attack and spotted a pack of dogs roaming the street nearby as neighbors stayed near their porch and out of harm's way.
When Barrientez called her district council member's office to report more dog trouble, she said a staff member asked if the dogs had tags. She replied that she was too busy rushing away from the aggressive animals to notice whether they had tags. Cruz said he saw no tags on the dogs, which would indicate they are the same strays that frequently cause trouble in the neighborhood.
(Click2Houston - April 24, 2012)
