Daxton Borchardt was 14 months old when he was killed by Susan Iwicki’s pet pit bulls, Penny and Boss.
The toddler, affectionately known as Dax, was in Susan's arms when the dogs leapt up and ripped him out of her arms.
They dragged him down and fatally injuring him with their jaws.
And Dax tragically died hours later in hospital. Susan was also badly injured trying to fight the dogs off.
At first Dax’s parents Jeff and Kim Borchardt hated Susan, who was not charged with any offences.
Kim, 39, from Wisconsin, said: “In that moment I hated Susan and hated her dogs. I screamed at her, ‘Why was Dax near them? How did they get to him?’
“Afterwards the days, weeks and months passed in a sad blur. Susan sent a card which I looked at, but I didn’t contact her. She didn’t come to his funeral which was packed.”
Before the incident, the couple had been very close to Susan and she regularly babysat Dax, who was born in December 2011.
“Susan was totally smitten with him,” Kim recalled. “Dax was your typical little boy. He was interested in absolutely everything and always up to mischief."
“When he learnt to walk at ten months you couldn’t leave him alone for a minute," she added.
“He loved pulling things off shelves and clambering over to bookcases."
“I knew I was biased because I was his mum, but Dax was a real looker. He had huge eyes, a cheeky grin and fluffy dark hair."
Kim worked in a suburb of Milwaukee and Jeff worked as a DJ at night and helped Susan's boyfriend lay carpets in the day, so Dax was looked after by his doting babysitter.
Kim said: “He loved it there. She had two little chinchillas, Poe and Raven, and Dax adored them. He would stare at them for hours. But I knew she kept Boss and Penny away from Dax because Jeff had asked her to. I knew she looked after the dogs but Dax was so little and they were so big.”
Kim says she still remembers the last time she saw her son alive.
She said: “On March 5, 2013, when Dax was 14 months, he fell asleep while eating his evening meal. Laughing at how silly he looked face down in his tea, I thought about how much I loved him.
“The next day I got up extra early because it was really snowy and I wanted to take the drive to work slowly.”
The mum dropped her son off and went to work as she often did, but shortly afterwards little Dax was attacked and flown by air ambulance to Milwaukee Children’s Hospital.
“I’d been at work as an accountant a few hours when I got a call from the police," said Kim.
“They said he’d been bitten by a dog. I wasn’t sure how it had happened because the chinchillas were harmless and the big dogs weren’t supposed to be anywhere near him.”
She met her husband at the hospital and learnt what had happened.
Kim said: “The doctors told me it wasn’t good news and led me to a quiet room. When the doctors said they’d lost him I was shell-shocked, didn’t speak. I went to see him.
“‘I love you,’ I whispered. ‘I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you.’”
But it was months before she started to forgive Susan – and the anniversary of Dax’s death before she saw her. She said: “We both began to realise that she had not intended for Dax to be killed, had not realised how dangerous her dogs could be. So we invited her to be part of Daxton’s Friends, a charity we were launching to educate people about pit bulls. People asked if I would be ok but I was adamant. I needed to see her so she knew it was ok. I knew it wouldn’t change how I felt about Dax.
“Even so looking at her for the first time wasn’t easy when she came to our first meeting. When we first saw each other we hugged and she said she was sorry. Now we are working together to encourage proper pet care and reduce the number of dog-related incidents.
“Losing Dax was the worst thing that could have happened to me. I won’t lose my friend as well as my son.”
Susan, 32, of Fontana, Wisconsin, said: “The dogs were allowed in the house but never when Dax was there. Although they had never been violent, they were strong dogs, could knock him over. I wouldn’t have wanted that to happen.”
Talking about the day of his death, she said: “One dog stood on my throat so I couldn’t reach Dax. There was blood everywhere. I spoke to the police and they cleared me of any blame, but I blamed myself. I didn’t blame Kim and Jeff for blaming me. My dogs, who I agreed should be put down, had killed their son.
“I’d cared for Boss and Penny and always believed that dangerous dogs were the fault of the owner. But I began to think that maybe this wasn’t the case and that perhaps pit bulls shouldn’t be kept as pets.”
Describing the first time she saw Kim, she said: “Losing Dax has left a huge gap in our lives. We aren’t the same people we were. But thanks to the power of friendship and a shared aim we’ve overcome terrible tragedy and are friends again.”
(Express.co.uk - Feb 2, 2015)
Earlier:
No comments:
Post a Comment