Tony Cracknell, 66, of Greenfield Road, Fleetwood, had just returned home from walking his Jack Russell, Bonnie, and taken her lead off when a woman walked past with a dark-coloured Staffie.
Instinctively, Bonnie approached the pair but in seconds the other animal had taken hold of the smaller dog in its powerful jaws.
Tony, who had his right leg amputated 15 years ago after complications with diabetes, has to use a motability scooter to get around but was forced to get up and try and reach Bonnie.
He fell over and was then involved in a frantic struggle to pull the pit bull's jaws off his pet.
He said: “I don’t where I got the strength from, it must have been adrenalin kicking in. I was lying in the mud, trying to gets its jaws off Bonnie.
“It was a strong dog but I grabbed hold and prised its mouth open and Bonnie ran in through the front door. When I looked up the woman and the [pit bull] had gone, just disappeared. It took me 10 minutes to get up from the floor and make it into the house.”
But the trauma wasn’t over. Bonnie was lying in a pool of blood from a wound just below her neck.
Tony got a taxi to the vets and they bound the wound and gave Bonnie a painkiller and an antibiotic, but said she was too traumatised for anaesthetic and would have to come back for stitches the next day.
Tony is just relieved that Bonnie, a rescue dog he took in eight years ago, will be around for Christmas and is recovering.
He said: “The vets did a brilliant job. I’m just relieved she survived and I was close to tears in the vets’ surgery.”
He didn’t call the police about the December 10 incident but he warns other dog owners to try and keep their pets clear of powerful bull terriers – and visa-versa.
He said: “I accept the other dog was on a lead and mine wasn’t. But it was traumatic and I’m just a bit annoyed the woman didn’t stick around to see if I was all right or if Bonnie was badly hurt.”
“Bonnie could have died.”
(Blackpool Gazette - Dec 24, 2014)
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