"All of a sudden she comes running into the kitchen screaming mom, mom, the wolf dog bit me," recalled Elena's mother Jennifer. "It bit her on her left leg, she has three puncture wounds, she had two right below her knee and on behind her knee."
Jennifer says one of the wounds punctured deep muscle tissue and Elena was forced to undergo a series of painful rabies treatments.
"For a while there we were not sleeping, barely eating, because we were worried -- especially putting her through those rabies shots," she said.
According to veterinary records we obtained from the Sharon Center Veterinary Hospital, the dog's owner identified it's breed as "wolf dog."
Doctors say there is no fail safe way to determine if a wolf hybrid has rabies other than to put it down.
However, before the Medina County Board of Health could get the dog turned over to their custody, it disappeared.
"It makes me very frustrated to see my little girl have to go through this," said Elena's step-father Dave.
The mystery has now forced the Medina family to hire an attorney to get answers.
"I get that you love your dog, I love my dog also, but it is outrageous to me that the owner this dog and I understand he's a physician, that the owner of this dog would put that interest above the interest of this little girl," said Ryan Fisher who is now representing the family.
Channel 3 knocked on the dog owner's home along Torington Drive to get answers, instead we received the following written statement from their attorney J. Jeffrey Holland.
"I understand that there has been an allegation that the dog, Nashoba, is a "wolf-hybrid." This is incorrect. A full evidentiary hearing was held on this issue on June 7, 2013, including testimony from Nashoba's breeder, who made it clear that the dog is a Shepherd/Malamute/Husky mix. Judge Richard Markus, serving by assignment in the Medina County Court of Common Pleas, ruled that Nashoba is a dog who is fully vaccinated in compliance with the law. There is no evidence from any qualified person to support that he is anything other than a dog. The Polings are very sorry about the child's injury."
(WKYC-TV - Jun 25, 2013)
