MENTOR, Ohio — A mother and daughter are grateful to be alive after being attacked by a dog in their neighborhood.
"I didn't want to die, and I didn't want to have a story that my daughter died from being mauled by a pit bull,” said Mentor Resident, Alexis Higham.
On Saturday, Higham and her 4-year-old daughter, Carina, were going for one of their afternoon walks to Veteran Park in Mentor.
"My daughter said, 'Mom, look, a dog.' And when I looked, I didn't see nobody with the dog. The dog began walking towards us, and when it got closer to Carina, all she did was make eye contact with the dog, and it grabbed her by her face and it pulled her down,” said Higham.
Higham began hitting the dog with her water bottle, but it wasn’t enough to stop the attack on her daughter.
"I was like, if she gets one more bite, it's over with. So, I grabbed her, and I picked her up with one hand and put her on top of my head. The dog grabbed onto my arm, and I had to drag us to the nearest house,” said Higham.
Afraid for her and her daughter's life, she began to scream for help while dragging the dog to what she believed was the owners’ home and says she didn't receive any help from the owners.
“I was screaming, 'Help me please,' and they just stood there. I was watching my blood come out of my daughter’s head, and I knew I couldn’t give up. So, I looked down at the dog and asked, 'Do you want a treat?' As soon as I asked the dog if it wanted a treat, the dog let go,” said Higham.
She immediately ran home, neighbors called 911, and they were both rushed to a nearby hospital. Carina underwent facial reconstructive surgery, and she'll need additional cosmetic surgery in six months.
"Her head was completely open at the top, and they had to stitch that back together. The dog pulled the skin off her chin, on the side of her lip, took skin off her nose and under her eye,” said Higham.
Higham had to get eight stitches on her arm and butterfly stitches on her wrist.
"He was so close to every vein that if he would have bit it, I wouldn’t be here right now to talk about this story,” said Higham.
Before the incident, Carina was a dog lover.
"Now, she keeps saying 'Mom, I don't want that dog to come up our street,' or she keeps saying that she doesn't want to go for walks, and she's just scared the dog's going to come to our house,” said Higham.
But she’s been doing all she can to keep her spirits up.
"I've been getting her lots of coloring stuff, stickers, and I try to talk about happy stuff. And it's been helping,” said Higham.
Higham plans to press charges and wants the dog removed from the home. A GoFundMe has been set up to support them as they heal from the attack.
According to Mentor police, the dog is being quarantined as required by law. The case remains under investigation.
