SEQUIM — Roger and Kathy Larson were walking their beloved dog, Sadie, on Wednesday afternoon near their Sunset Place home in SunLand when, without warning, the 10-pound Shih Tzu-Chihuahua mix was attacked by two much larger dogs.
The attacking dogs, believed to be pitbull-Labrador mixes, charged across a neighbor’s yard but were not linked to the neighbor, the Larsons said.
The dogs left Sadie in need of more than 25 stitches, her flesh torn and punctured on the right side, extending from her stomach to the back of her leg, and bit Roger.
“These two dogs just came off the porch and flew at us and attacked us,” said Kathy, who was not injured.
The dogs ran off immediately after they mauled Sadie, and their whereabouts were not known Thursday.
“We have not found the dogs,” Tracey Kellas, animal control officer for Clallam County, said Thursday night.
She and two deputies “really scoured SunLand” looking for the dogs, she said.
“My thought is that they live somewhere close and ran home,” she said.
Roger, 65 and retired, did what he could to save Sadie.
He immediately scooped her up in his arms.
“I cradled the dog, and they came up and got to her leg,” he said, adding that the dogs bit him in the right hand as he held her.
Kathy, who said she, Roger and Sadie were still traumatized by the attack, took the bleeding dog to the veterinarian for stitches and Roger to the emergency room, where he was treated for puncture wounds on his thumb and hand, which was heavily bandaged.
Emergency medical technicians with Clallam County Fire District No. 3 and Kellas arrived soon after the attack, the Larsons said.
Roger was given crutches to support an injured hamstring, and he said he was sore from repeatedly trying to kick away the aggressive dogs.
Said Kellas: “I only saw the aftermath, but honestly, I don’t think he was the intended target; the dog was.”
Roger has had both hips replaced and was concerned about additional injuries.
“I was just totally exhausted after 15 seconds,” he said of fighting off the dogs, which knocked him off his feet as he clung to Sadie, their 5½-year-old pet.
Said Kathy: “I’m just really mad.
“These dogs need to be apprehended, and the owners need to be held responsible. They had collars; they had tags.
“The dogs that got her will get somebody else, and that’s not a good thing.”
She put out an email alert to their SunLand dog-walking neighbors, who she said were supportive.
One kind neighbor brought Sadie some gourmet doggie treats.
Those with information that could lead to the capture of the attacking dogs should phone animal control through Clallam County PenCom emergency dispatch at 360-417-2459.
Callers can make anonymous reports, Kellas said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
