Christine Kowalkowski-Cowling was holding the three-month-old Yorkshire terrier, called Pippa, when a pit bull-type terrier jumped up and bit the puppy’s face.
Christine, 60, passed out and her husband Jim tried to get the dog off while their five-year-old grandson looked on.
“We had just come out of Wilkinsons shop and I had Pippa in my arms,” said Christine.
“Next minute I saw a white dog’s face with her in his mouth and he was shaking her. I was screaming and then I passed out.
“I remember being on my knees and next minute a paramedic was waking me up.”
Christine spent nearly a week at Great Western Hospital after the incident, which took place at about 1.30pm on October 25, but is now back home in east Swindon.
Pippa was taken to the vet but only required a few injections.
Christine, a grandmother-of-three, said: “The vet said if she had been bitten a bit further down it would have killed her. He had her lip and her nose.
“I was concerned about my grandson, Callum, because he was right by me. “I’m lucky it wasn’t my grandson. It could have been a newborn baby or a child.
“I don’t blame the dog, it’s the owner. Something has got to be done. “Someone must know who it was – please contact the police if you know.”
Both dogs were on leads, but the owner of the pit bull terrier left the scene before the emergency services arrived.
Jim, 63, said: “I didn’t know what to do because the dog was attacking Pippa, Christine was on the floor and Callum was standing beside me.
“I wanted to save the dog, I wasn’t thinking about what would happen to me. When I finally got the dog off, the owner said sorry and walked off. He was in his 40s. I think it was a shock to him.”
Christine, who got the all clear from breast cancer last year after being diagnosed six years ago, is registered disabled.
She was standing at the time of the attack.
Christine said: “We only went into town because my grandson doesn’t go on the bus very often and he likes going on it. He went in on the bus and he came back in a police van.
“We would like to say a big thank you to all the people, police and the ambulance crew for the help we received.”
Witnesses or anyone with information should call Wiltshire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously if preferred, on 0800 555 111.
(This Is Wiltshire - Nov 7, 2012)
