Patches, all of 15 pounds, and the 72-year-old woman were all each other had: Marin's husband died a few years back.
Just two seniors enjoying a peaceful life in their Penn Estates community.
Marin stopped in a neighbor's driveway on Wood Acre Drive to chat. Patches stood by her side, leashed and relaxed.
Out of the corner of her eye, Marin noticed a young boy walking alongside a large unleashed Rottweiler a few yards away.
"All of a sudden, for no reason at all, this dog just charged across my neighbor's yard and attacked my dog," Marin said. "He took my dog in the ditch, and it was tearing my dog apart."
Former police officer Michael Curcio witnessed the attack.
"The dog was unleashed and immediately attacked (Marin's) dog. Flipped it up in the air and bit her."
Marin rushed into the ditch, trying to save her dog. The Rottweiler went after her, puncturing the skin on her hands with its teeth before returning to what was left of Patches.
"(Marin) was lying in a pool of blood," Curcio said.
Marin tried to save Patches again from the Rottweiler ripping her apart.
"I picked up my dog and (the Rottweiler) bit me again. My dog's insides were all out. Its intestines and everything," Marin sobbed.
She finally cradled Patches, gathering the disemboweled dog's organs.
"He just wanted to kill her, that's all he wanted to do."
Couldn't save her
The boy walking the Rottweiller was in shock.
"The poor boy didn't know what do," Marin said. "He just ran home crying," leaving his dog at the scene.
A neighbor loaded Marin and Patches into a car.
"We went to the vet," Marin said. "They were very good, very fast. The doctors looked at her and told me she didn't look good. I begged him to save her, but they said they couldn't."
The neighbor then took Marin to Pocono Medical Center, where she was treated for her injuries and released.
Police intervention
By the time officers from Stroud Area Regional Police arrived, the Rottweiler was gone.
Officers met with the Rottweiler's owner, Byron Moore,who lived three blocks from the attack. Neighbors said the dog was kept in a home owned by his brother.
Police quarantined the Rottweiler for a 10-day period, ordering the owner to confine it with on-leash walks only. The 10-day quarantine is necessary to see if the dog shows any symptoms of rabies, according to Samantha Krepps of the state Department of Agriculture.
Monroe County Dog Warden George Nixon issued a citation for having a dangerous dog, allowing a dog to run at large and not under reasonable control, not having a dog license or rabies vaccination, according to Krepps.
There will be a hearing in magisterial court to determine if the dog is dangerous. If it's deemed dangerous, the owner would have to make special arrangements to confine the dog under strict state rules. Otherwise, the dog would have to be euthanized.
Moore, who lives on Starview Drive, a few blocks away, told police he keeps the dog at his brother's residence at Melrose Terrace, where the young boy, his nephew, resides.
Moore's number is not listed, and the Pocono Record was not able to reach him.
He faces fines as high as $300 for failing to license the dog and $300 for failing to vaccinate for rabies, according to Krepps, whose department is in charge of enforcing the state's dog laws.
If the Rottweiler is deemed a dangerous dog by the court, it will cost the owner another $500 a year, and he will be forced to house the dog under special confinement rules. Otherwise the dog would have to be destroyed.
Do the laws protect us?
Neighbors ask why police didn't remove the dog after the attack?
But the dog laws only allow the police or dog warden to remove a dog that's attacked a person or animal only after it's been deemed a dangerous dog by the courts. The exception is if the owner doesn't have the means or willingness to quarantine the dog.
The incident is still under investigation, according to SARP Capt. Brian Kimmins.
"We can't take the dog into custody," Kimmins said. "It's an incident we have to work with the dog warden on."
Enforcing the dog laws itself is a problem as shelters become more scarce and space is limited.
"That's the rub," Pennsylvania SPCA Humane Officer Elizabeth Anderson said. "Ten to 15 years ago, we had access to other things, shelters and vets in the past could do dog bite quarantines. Otherwise, the police can put it down."
The state will pay a shelter $50 or $100 a day to quarantine a dog, but Anderson doesn't know anyone who would do a dog bite quarantine anymore.
"There's really no place now," she said. If the dog cannot be quarantined and observed for signs or rabies, the dog is euthanized and its head is removed and sent to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture diagnostic lab.
Anderson said she just didn't know what else the police could have done in Penn Estates other than leave the Rottweiler with the owner under quarantine.
Although she said SARP has a kennel, it's not really set up for quarantine. "Dogs 75-100 pounds, that's something the police aren't set up to do," she said.
A terrorized neighborhood
The quarantine ended this week, and the Penn Estates community lives in fear.
Curcio said. "I shouldn't have to live in fear walking my dog, or worse, attacking a child."
Several weeks ago, Penn Estates resident Karen Connolly, 56, was walking Maggie, a mixed-breed dog, when the Rottweiler attacked, sinking its teeth into Maggie's back.
"I yelled for my son," Connolly said. "The older kid walking the dog was beating on the Rottweiler until it released my dog."
The beating may have saved more than Connolly's pet. The woman is partially paralyzed and unable to defend herself from a vicious attack.
There's another danger posed by this dog.
"I know several people who are walking around here armed now because of that dog," Curcio said.
Marin, who is still shaken by the events, cannot even fathom finding another four-legged companion.
Despite her overwhelming grief, her fear of another attack prevents her from exposing one more animal to a potentially dangerous neighborhood.
She now must walk alone — if at all.
(Pocono Record - Sept 14, 2013)
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