The parson jack russell is now a reminder of he and wife Sonya's desperate bid to save the dog's sister, Daisy, after their neighbour's bull mastiff cross staffy broke loose and fatally mauled the "defenceless" pet.
The dog's death is a fresh blow for the couple's daughter, Lucinda. She had left Daisy - which belonged to her 11-year-old daughter Pallas Retimana - in her parents' care after her Coolangatta, Queensland, home was destroyed in February's tornado.
The Christchurch City Council animal control unit has confiscated the mastiff after Monday's attack.
Sonya Knapp, 74, had just returned home from grocery shopping and put Daisy on a leash to cross the road when the mastiff attacked. The dog's jaws locked around Daisy's neck.
Sonya Knapp tried to pull the mastiff off, then resorted to kicking, but to no avail.
"I was rolling on the ground with him but his jaws were locked around her neck . . . Then I ran out of strength." She screamed for help as the dog dragged Daisy back to its property.
Jim Knapp, 76, who was inside, clambered over the six-foot fence and managed to pry the mastiff's jaw open. Sonya Knapp retrieved Daisy, by this time covered in blood with her throat ripped open.
Advised by a vet the dog had suffered a collapsed lung, crush injuries and had her jugular vein completely ripped out, the couple decided to have the dog euthanised.
"It just keeps replaying in my head all the time," Sonya Knapp said.
Knapp and her husband felt the bull mastiff cross staffy should be put down.
The owner, who did not want to be named, claimed her next-door neighbour had moved wooden boards which secured a hole in fence. "I feel so sorry for them. They [Sonya and Jim Knapp] gave me wood to keep my dogs in," the woman said.
The woman's next-door neighbour told The Press he had not moved anything and declined to comment further.
(The Press - July 16, 2013)
