She had walked to the Prime gas station with her brother's girlfriend, and the two women were returning home when they passed a man walking a pit bull on a leash.
Suddenly, Rosado said, the pit bull pulled away from its walker and charged toward them, seizing Bubbles in its mouth and beginning to shake her vigorously back and forth.
Both women began screaming, and Rosado started hitting the pit bull in an attempt to get it to let go of Bubbles.
She said the dog finally let go when a neighbor heard the commotion, grabbed his umbrella, and hit the pit bull on the head. Rosado's dog was alive, but hurt, with two deep puncture wounds.
"It was a nightmare," she said.
Rosado's dog, Bubbles, is not the only victim of this pit bull. According to a Marshall Street resident, four attacks have occurred in the past few weeks, though only two have been confirmed, and were not necessarily perpetrated by the same dog. In both confirmed cases, the owners of the dogs who were attacked said Fitchburg Animal Control has not reacted strongly or quickly enough to avoid future incidents.
Both owners reported seeing the pit bull on a leash but pulling out of its walker's grip, and while one of the dogs attacked was not on a leash, Rosado said she had Bubbles on a leash when she was attacked.
After the incident, Bubbles developed an abscess where the pit bull's teeth punctured her body, and required surgery last week to drain the abscess and heal the wounds. Rosado held the Chihuahua in her arms on Thursday, pointing out the wounds inflicted almost two weeks earlier.
"She's my baby," Rosado said. "She's a really good girl. This shouldn't have happened."
Rosado said she was told by Animal Control Office Susan Kowaleski that the dog who attacked Bubbles was supposed to be quarantined, because it had recently attacked another dog.
Marshall Street residents Alberto Perez and his daughter, Kathy Vargas, believe their Chihuahua Baby was the dog Kowaleski was referring to. Baby, who was 4 years old, was owned by Vargas but often cared for by her 9-year-old niece, Perez's granddaughter.
The 4-pound dog was attacked and killed by a pit bull in June, said Perez and Vargas.
Last month, Perez said, Baby was outside without a leash, at the end of the family's long driveway. Vargas was at work at the time, but Perez was at the house.
"This guy comes up the street and is walking his dog," Perez said. "I think the dog cornered Baby, and when I came out, the pit bull had her in his mouth. She was dead."
"I was very sad," he continued. "It was very hard for me to call my granddaughter and tell her the dog had died."
Police Department spokesman Capt. Steven Giannini said he was aware of a call from a few weeks ago in which one dog attacked another, but said "I'm not sure if the dog killed another dog."
Vargas said their family called the police after Baby was killed, though it's not clear if this was the incident Giannini was referring to.
"A report was made to Animal Control," Vargas said. "They didn't do anything."
She said Animal Control told her the dog would be required to wear a muzzle, but added, "I've seen the dog since, and it didn't have a muzzle."
Kowaleski did not return requests for comment. She was not able to verify, therefore, that the same pit bull attacked both Baby and Bubbles. Both owners, however, described a brown and white pit bull whose owner lives on Mechanic Street.
Rosado said Kowaleski confirmed with her that Miguel Vargas owns the pit bull that attacked Bubbles, though the police report lists Vargas as a "possible owner."
Orlando Rosado, Franceska's brother, said he confronted the man walking the pit bull, who was not its owner, immediately after Bubbles was attacked.
"He was walking away. He said he was going to get a muzzle for the pit bull," Orlando Rosado said. "I followed him to his house, and when the cops came through they automatically knew who he was."
Orlando Rosado was insistent that the dog's owner, not the dog, is the real problem.
"It's not about pit bulls," he said. "I have a pit bull, Holly, and she and Bubbles are friends and cuddle all the time."
Well, isn't that special...
Franceska Rosado agreed.
"I don't know what the owner is doing to that dog to make it charge across the street," she said, adding that she's worried for other small dogs and even children in the neighborhood.
She was also frustrated with Kowaleski for not filing charges against the owner after he violated the quarantine order for his dog. On Thursday, Rosado filed a complaint with the Police Department against Kowaleski, who hadn't yet submitted her portion of the incident report on Bubbles' attack.
Rosado plans to file charges against the pit bull's owner, she said, but cannot do so until Kowaleski completes the incident report. She wants to see the pit bull's owner suffer some sort of consequence, and ensure that his dog doesn't hurt any other neighborhood pets.
For Baby and her owner, Vargas, it's too late. At this point, she said, she is mostly frustrated that police and animal control didn't take action after her dog was killed.
"If a dog attacks another dog and kills it, something should be done," she said
(Sentinel and Enterprise - July 20, 2015)
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