Tuesday, Dec. 31 began as a normal workday for Ashley Swearengin, as she sold vacuum cleaners door to door on Briarcliff Drive in Colonial Heights. But all of a sudden, a dog came out of nowhere and things took a turn for the worse.
"The dog clipped me right here, and then his tooth got hung," Swearengin said. "I guess it sliced my whole, entire lip."
Swearengin's New Year's Eve included a torn-up mouth, stitches, rabies shots and a lot of pain. She says the pit bull greeted her as she walked along Briarcliff Drive. She bent down to pet him, and he lunged at her face.
"He just jumped up and bit me in my face," Swearengin said. "I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what am I supposed to do?' There was at least five or six other kids; what if it happened to another kid?"
The dog took off running, Swearengin went to the emergency room and animal control officers searched for the pit bull.
"They could not find the dog, whatsoever," Swearengin said. "[They] looked for him for a few hours, and so they went ahead and gave me rabies shots just in case."
Now, the young mother is left with a stack of medical bills and fear as she tries to go back to work. She hopes the dog and its owner are found soon.
"I don't want another child or person, per se, to go through what I had to go through," Swearengin said.
Colonial Heights Animal Control is continuing to look for the dog's owner. Meanwhile, Swearengin will meet with a plastic surgeon next week to find out if she needs any more work done on her face.
(WRIC - Jan 2, 2014)
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