To get to the bus stop, 11-year-old Maleik, and his sister Jalia walk through the backyard...and along a chain link fence.
The neighbor's fence had a gaping hole and two unleashed pit bulls.
"The brown and white dog ran on the other side, jumped out of the fence and the black one did, too and they started snapping at Jalia. So, I ran over there, started kicking them away from her and they bit me and I told Jalia to run," Maleik says.
Five-year-old Jalia ran across the street...while Maleik battled the two dogs.
"When they locked on to my leg, I got a chair and started hitting them with it," Maleik says.
It was jalia's toy chair that saved her brother's life. "It kept biting my legs, so I got it and did it like this on the black dog neck," Maleik says.
Maleik kept the dogs off long enough to jump his own fence. That's when his older sister took him to the hospital.
"It hurt me to my soul when I saw those cuts. I try my best not to cry in front of him because he was already being very strong and I wanted him to continue to be strong," says Maeik and Jalia's father, Willie Carr.
"I was hurt, scared, and after all was said and done, angry because more care wasn't taken to make sure these dogs didn't hurt anyone," Maleik says.
That's a real scare for Sherry and Willie Carr...whose ten children frequently play in the backyard...but there's also a sense of relief.
"They will react to protect each other at all costs. It makes me so proud. It makes me so proud to have this hero in my house," Willie says. "It brings tears to my eyes. It makes me very proud," says the kids' mother, Sherry.
(WJBF - Nov 8, 2012)
