toledoblade.com --

For trying to befriend a stray dog, little Alexis Rock nearly had her life put into jeopardy.

The second grader at North Baltimore Elementary School found the animal - an apparent mix between an English bulldog and a pit bull - wandering around her yard when she arrived home about 3:15 p.m. Thursday.

Something caused the dog to clench its powerful jaw down on the girl's left thigh, its sharp teeth piercing through her leg muscle and nearly puncturing a main artery. At 50 pounds, the dog weighed more than she did.

Alexis, who had just turned 8 days ago, watched in horror as the dog attacked her sister, her mother, and one of their family's two dogs. It also tried, to no avail, to go after her father.

Dog attack described

Little did she know it had reportedly growled at various people in southern Wood County as it eluded the county dog warden near Bairdstown, east of the country home where the Rocks live. Bairdstown is about 17 miles south of Bowling Green.

Victim No. 2 was 12-year-old Kaycie Rock, a seventh grader at North Baltimore Middle School. She kicked the stray dog in its butt in hopes of getting it away from her kid sister. No luck.

But then the family dog, Brutus, a rottweiler, stepped in and bit it on its face. The stray let go of Alexis and went after Kaycie.

That happened all in a matter of seconds. The third victim - mother Stephanie Rock - pulled the pit bull away from her two daughters and threw her body on top of it.

One of the girls ran inside and awoke their father, Steve, a Fostoria factory worker who was trying to catch up on sleep.

"I went over and kicked it on the head. I jumped on the dog," Mrs. Rock recalled yesterday from the lobby of Toledo Children's Hospital, where Alexis was recovering from leg surgery.

The woman's sole objective was to get ahold of that dog and not let go.

"I knew that no matter happened to me, I'd be OK. I wasn't about to let anything happen to my kids," Mrs. Rock said.

The woman, with the help of trusty Brutus, held down the stray long enough for her husband to arrive with a gun. After yelling at Brutus to stand back, Mr. Rock shot the pit bull once in the hip while the dog had either his wife's arm or sweatshirt sleeve in its mouth.

The pit bull then lunged at Mr. Rock. He shot it two more times, dropping it to the ground. It then died.

"He yelled at our dog and told him to move, and Steve did what he had to do," Mrs. Rock said. "Steve shot him in the hip and I rolled out of the way."

The mother and the two girls were taken to Wood County Hospital in Bowling Green.

Mrs. Rock said she was treated for bites on her ankle, abdomen, and inner thighs. She got five or six stitches on her ankle. Kaycie was treated for superficial cuts to her legs and her behind.

Alexis was the only one admitted. She was flown to Toledo Hospital for her surgery, and was reported in fair condition yesterday. Her family was told she may go home today after doctors see how she responds to her first 24 hours of antibiotics, Mrs. Rock said.

"Thank God, as big as that dog was and as strong as that dog was, he didn't get any of us in the face," Mrs. Rock said. "We all got extremely lucky, actually."

Even Brutus. The rottweiler escaped with hardly a mark.

The injury to Alexis was a close call, though. "The surgeon said a hair deeper, and it would have hit that main artery in her leg. We definitely had a guardian angel looking out for us," Mrs. Rock said.

Mrs. Rock was joined in the hospital lobby by her mother, Sue Agner of McComb, Ohio, who said she was terrified by the tone in her son-in-law's voice when he implored her to get to the Bowling Green hospital.

She said she feared the worst, recalling stories about how pit bulls have attacked the throat.

"Steve didn't say where they had been bitten. There was such a frantic tone in his voice, and I knew as soon as he said, 'Mama,' that something had happened," Mrs. Agner said.

County Dog Warden Rodney Cook has said the dead dog had no identification and was probably abandoned. It was believed to be an English bulldog-pit bull mix. It had no scars and did not appear to be a fighting dog. Its head is being tested at a Columbus laboratory for rabies.

Mr. Cook said he had received other complaints about the dog and was setting a trap for it about five miles away when he received the call about the attack at the Rock residence.

Contact Tom Henry at:
thenry@theblade.com
or 419-724-6079.

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