A Nampa dog is recovering after a vicious weekend attack by another dog.
Michaella Franlin's garage looks like a crime scene, dotted with blood. Franklin planned on spending her Saturday working around the house and yard, that is, until a neighbor's large dog showed up.
"It just kind of looked at me and I'm looking around like, where is the owner of this dog?" Franklin said. "Then it saw my dog and it ran into my garage, and my dog kind of hunkered down for safety and it just mauled her."
Franklin said she tried pulling the dogs apart by the collar. When that didn't work, she tried to use a bike pump to push the attacking dog off her seven-year-old spaniel, Bailey.
"It seemed like it went on for ten or fifteen minutes," Franklin said.
It wasn't until the cat, Mocha, heard the noise from inside the house, came out, and distracted the other dog could Bailey get free.
"Bailey is alive today because of my cat, Mocha, without a doubt," Franklin said.
Nampa Animal Control says the owner of the attacking dog has been cited for the incident, but an animal on animal attack is treated differently by law enforcement than an animal on human attack.
"It is different because we're dealing with nature, and we're more concerned with public safety, safety of people," Nampa Animal Control Officer Shelly Duff said.
Duff said if a dog attacks another dog, that doesn't mean it's a threat to a human's safety.
"Even though it's a dog, they don't view the smaller dogs like a dog; it's a prey animal" Duff said. "These type of dogs are usually never human-aggressive."
Bailey had to undergo surgery after sustaining dozens of deep bites, racking up a veterinary bill of close to $2,000.
Duff says once a person is cited for an incident, officers will ask the victim-dog's owner if they would like to seek restitution.
"We will request the vet bills and we will put them in the report, and when they go to court the prosecuting attorney can ask that the dog owner, of the attacking dog, pay the bills," Duff said.
As for now, Bailey is home recovering from the attack with her savior by her side.
"They're like brother and sister," Franklin said.
The Nampa Police Department is investigating the incident and the investigation is ongoing.
