GEORGIA -- In a span of just five minutes, the lives of a Lithia Springs family took a tragic turn when two dogs broke through their second-story screen door, killed two cats and tried to attack the wife.
The two pit bull mixes broke into the home on Pennsylvania Court where Patrick Vermilya and and his wife, Pati McMahon, have lived for the past 10 years. That morning Vermilya had left the house just before 10 a.m. to run some errands. The couple's 16-pound cat, Oscar, usually goes out at about 9 o'clock every morning and sits in a chair on the screened-in patio and Saturday was no different.
The other cat, Lucy, was sitting in the living room. McMahon was playing with Lucy when she decided to do some yard work. She then went to the garage to get some tools.
When McMahon was gone, the dogs apparently came inside, killed 10-year-old Oscar who was sitting in a chair on the screen porch, then went further into the home and attacked 11-year-old Lucy.
McMahon came back inside minutes later to find a pool of blood on the floor. A closer look revealed Lucy dead in her living room.
"I immediately turned to go out and see where the yellow cat was and he was dead on the porch," McMahon said. "At this time, I'm like in shock and I walked back into the living room. Luckily, I had had the phone in my hand because I was going to make a phone call and I saw two dogs - one real aggressive - coming straight at me."
From watching TV shows with her husband, she remembered not to scream when threatened by a dog.
"I backed up, kept the phone in my hand and locked myself in the bathroom," McMahon said. "They followed me there and they stood outside the door."
She could hear the dog's nails scratching on the hardwood floors.
"I sat in there," McMahon said. "I called my husband. He called 911."
After about 15 minutes, the house became extremely quite. McMahon thought the dogs were gone so she walked out of the bathroom.
"I didn't see anybody and I thought, 'Okay, let me shut the door,'" she said. "I figured the dogs had gone outside and then the dog lunged at me again. Then I went out the other door and I shut it."
The dogs were now locked inside the house. Animal control eventually came and captured the dogs who officials later discovered had two separate owners.
"The first dog the owner has signed the dog over to the animal shelter and has given permission for euthanization," Douglas County Communications Director Wes Tallon said Monday.
But the second dog's owner has not yet come to identity their pet.
"When that person comes in and identifies the dog, then we will ask them to do the same thing," Tallon said. "We will ask them to surrender the dog and sign the papers that it can be euthanized. If they do not do that, then we will have to go through the legal process."
The owner has three days to claim the dog before the legal process begins. Meanwhile, the investigation into the attack continues and multiple citations will be issued to both owners.
Another neighbor came over after the incident and told McMahon he had seen the dogs roaming the neighborhood before.
"I have never seen the dogs," McMahon said. "If I had seen two pits bulls roaming the neighborhood, I would have called animal control."
She and her husband lives on about an acre of land and estimates that the dogs had to have walked two to three blocks through the woods to get on her property.
"They must have seen the yellow cat sitting up on the porch or something and came up to get it," McMahon said.
The attack has left the family to cope with the violent death of their pets who had been with them for more than 10 years.
"(Oscar) had sat outside for last the 10 years, even in the winter time," McMahon said. "He goes out there in the mornings and sits for an hour or so and then I bring him in."
It frightens her to know that the dogs came up two flights of stairs, through a screened door and then went further into the home during the attack.
"I just can't believe they went up all those stairs," McMahon said. "That just doesn't make sense to me so I thought (the cats) were completely safe."
The couple doesn't have children so the cats were like their kids.
"What is really tragic is that dogs can come into a house and kill animals that are the size of kids," McMahon said. "People need to have control of their animals. This is tragic for me, but if it had been (another) family, this could have been devastating."
This is why she is sharing her story.
"If you have an aggressive breed, you need to keep the dog in your yard," McMahon said.
She and her husband are trying to decide if they want to get new cats, but they're still grieving over Oscar and Lucy.
"It's a horrible experience and we're hoping that each day is going to get better," McMahon said.
(Douglas County Sentinel - July 22, 2013)
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