A couple have been left trying to fund a five-figure vet bill after their tiny pet was attacked by an uncontrolled dog on steroids.
Frances Dooley, 47, says she is still paying off her credit card bill today from when her senior Shih Tzu-mix, Woo Woo, was grabbed by a drugged Pit Bull five years ago.
They were told it would cost $20,000 - around £15,000 - to save their pet after it took them almost ten minutes to prise him from his animal's jaws.
The attacking dog's owner paid their initial vet bill but after that Frances and husband Patrick were left to foot the remaining costs.
Frances, from Bogota, New Jersey, said: "It was horrible, I remember it like it was yesterday.
"We barely walk the dogs at all. We have two loose Pit Bulls on our corner now so that stops us from walking even though I carry pepper spray and stun gun.
"I never want to see one of my babies in another dog's mouth again."
Woo Woo sadly passed away just before his 21st birthday last September due to a combination of old age and complications from the attack.
Frances, who now has three small breed dogs, is terrified to walk them without carrying weapons to defend herself and her pack from another rogue attack.
She is calling for stricter laws against dogs off lead in her area.
She said: "This has changed our lives forever. We now carry mace, pepper spray, two stun guns and at the beginning I was even carrying a bat.
"We used to walk all over Bogota now we have one block that we go.
"We are always stuck not moving, ducking into neighbours' yards to hide, it is terrible way to live."
Frances rescued Woo Woo from her postman, who stopped by her house while on the way to the animal shelter.
"My mum automatically fell in love," she said.
"Woo Woo was about three or four years, we were told. Never groomed, hit by owners, food was thrown at him - very sad."
Weighing only about seven pounds, the Lhasa Apso-Shih Tzu mix was terrified of men and flinched whenever anyone would move her hand near him.
However, after two years in a loving home with Frances and her mother Mary Dottie Trahan, he had grown to be a happy family pet at 16lbs.
Frances said: "Woo Woo loved his steak dinners every night, as well as cheese, pizza sauce, the ocean, swimming, car rides, vacations and he loved blankies and his talking toys.
"He became a really nice dog over time with a lot of TLC. He had a great life with us after we rescued him."
After Mary passed away in July 2013 aged 74, there was no doubt that her daughter was keeping him.
But, on Good Friday in 2017, Frances and her now-husband Patrick Dooley, 56, went for a quick walk with Woo Woo and their Pekingese Bentley, 13, before they went out for dinner.
Just two blocks from their front door, a Pit Bull terrier ran out and latched his mouth around Woo Woo's back.
She said: "I saw the dog running and I screamed for my husband but he did not hear me. I picked up Bentley and held the Pit Bull's head with my baby in his mouth.
"We heard the locking of his jaw while Woo Woo screamed.
"Blood is pouring out of my baby all over the ground, one neighbour ran down with water to dump on him.
"Patrick had his hands in his mouth trying to make the dog release."
It took eight minutes to prise the tiny senior dog from his attacker's jaws, who Frances alleges was taking prednisolone as part of a cancer treatment.
They rushed him to the animal hospital in Paramus for emergency medical treatment, as he bled over their car.
Frances said: "Woo Woo was in shock when we started driving to the vet, then he was moaning and screaming.
"They asked us if we wanted to put him down since he was 17, and there was not a great chance of survival.
"I told him to do whatever they had to, he will be my ring boy in our wedding."
The attack marked the sixth time Frances and her dogs had come into contact with the attacking dog after he had escaped or was off lead.
She wants to see the laws changed in the area to have more safeguarding for smaller dogs, and increase the number of fines given out for dogs off leads.
Frances said: "Police drive by see the dogs out without a leash or even a collar and do nothing.
"These animals are not our property they are our life, our loved ones.
"I was never blessed with human children, but God has given me all the love I need with these little fur kids."
