Derek Malcom, 23, who fought off the dog as it was attacking his best friend's mother was out of the hospital. He suffered some serious injuries because he chose to intervene and take on the dog, but both he and the dog's owner cannot believe that the dog they both loved so much could become so vicious.
"It's just, it's hard to understand, because he was such a good dog. He slept with me at night. He took care of me," Malcom said. "We're dog lovers. We never expected that to happen. I don't understand what happened. It was almost like he was cursed or something, like somebody had him under a curse."
"I've seen the bites on my mom. It was something like out of a horror movie," said Allan Teel, whose mother was attacked by the pit bull. "I mean, I never could have thought that something we loved, and loved us like that, could have done anything like that."
The pit bull, Clever, did extensive damage to Malcom. He has cuts, bruises and bandages all over his body.
Malcom had been staying at his friend's house because the two were working on his truck, but Teel said it was a good thing Malcom was staying at his house, because had he not been there, there's no telling what would have happened to his mother. Teel was at work at the time of the attack, but his best friend launched into action to fight off the pit bull.
"I had to do what I had to do to protect me and his mother, Linda," Malcom said. "It just, it was a horrible day man."
"By the bites on her and what he did to Derek, and I mean, we both wrestled in the past, and I know what kind of endurance and strength that takes, and if a dog does that to a state champion wrestler," Teel said. "My mom weighs 80 something pounds. There's no way she could have fought him off. If it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have my mother."
Malcom said he was asleep Wednesday morning when he heard his friend's mom screaming for help. Apparently, the 60-year old woman, Linda Engstrom, had popped the pit bull on the behind so that it wouldn't go pee on the couch. That was when the pit bull attacked the woman.
Malcom went after the pit bull, which then attacked him. He grabbed a steak knife and began to stab it in the heart and lungs, like he was taking out a hog. He said he couldn't just stand there and watch someone get attacked like that.
Both Malcom and his best friend's mother have a long road to recovery ahead of them.
(KIII - May 10, 2013)
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