Cassandra Saldana Ross said, "There was blood everywhere. She wasn't breathing. She wasn't conscious. She wasn't coherent to anything we did or said."
Expect the unexpected. It's a saying Chris and Cassie Ross can now identify with.
"We were literally, less than a mile away from her grandma's house when we got the phone call," said Ross.
It was September 21st, one of the first times they had left their 23-month-old, Caeleigh, alone.
"We went paddle boarding out on Lake Marble Falls with our cousins," Chris said.
She'd been at her great grandmother's house for less than two hours when the unthinkable happened.
"Caeleigh did not provoke the dog, did not touch the dog," said Cassie. "Just grabbed her by her head and attacked her."
The dog belongs to a family member.
Cassie said, "My uncle and his roommate were playing with my daughter, giving her a lot of attention, and I'm thinking that the dog got jealous. I don't know."
"The aunt tried to jump on the dog and just hold it down, she couldn't hold it down and the grandma grabbed her cane and started hitting the dog in the face...after a few whacks, it finally let go of her," said Chris. "Up until we saw her take that first breath, we both thought she was dead. Clay Kleen, one of the Granite Shoals Police Department, he was the first on the scene...he got her airway cleared out to where she was breathing again."
Chris added, "Was it a pit bull? Was it a pit bull that did this to her? No. Her best friends are my pit bulls."
Not a pit bull, but a 140-pound lab.
A dog she's known all her life because they're virtually the same age.
"Broke all the bones under her left eye. All the bones in her nose and all the bones that hold her top teeth in place. It fractured her skull on the right side and it fractured her skull in the back," said Chris
It took two tries before Starflight could land in Granite Shoals and bring her more than 56 miles away, to Dell Children's Medical Center in Austin.
Caeleigh lost 75% of the blood in her body and had to go through 14 hours of surgery, but she's making a remarkable recovery.
"Thank you, for everybody out there praying for my daughter," Cassie said.
The wife of the first police officer on scene started a fundraising effort for the Ross family.
They have no idea how much Caeleigh's care will cost.
"Right now, anything will help," said Chris.
"Everything helps," Cassie added. "It doesn't even have to be money...just support."
Finally, Caeleigh is no longer under sedation.
She's out of the ICU...and starting to seem more like herself.
Cassie said, "She says, 'I happy. I happy.' So, our little girl is here."
If you'd like to help the Ross family you can go their GoFundMe page here.
(MyFox Austin - Oct 7, 2014)
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