Elderly woman attacked by pair of loose dogs

An 87-year-old Ramona woman was recovering at home this week after being attacked by two dogs on Bassett Way Tuesday, March 23.

The woman, who did not wish to give her name, said she was taking a walk when two dogs came from the horse trail on Bassett Way and knocked her down. She was bitten by one of the dogs on her left leg and attacked by the other on her right leg and arm.

By screaming and pushing, she managed to scare them away, she said. Uncertain what breed of dog they were, she said they may have been pit bulls or part pit bull, and they were dark gray.

“They were almost identical,” she said.

After scaring the dogs away, she got up, went to a nearby home and rang the doorbell, but no one was home, and the two dogs came back.

“I was really frightened,” she said.

Despite her fear, she picked up something that was on the ground nearby — she doesn’t know what it was — and started shaking it at the dogs and screaming at them until they left.

She saw a couple across the street and asked for their help. They took her to Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, where her niece works. She was treated there and scheduled to see a plastic surgeon three days later, on March 26, for reconstructive surgery on her left leg.

She stayed with her niece and nephew-in-law until Monday, when she felt good enough to return home.

County Animal Services responded to the family’s call about the two dogs running loose but as of early this week had not found them as far as the woman and her family know. A call to the animal services officer attempting to locate the dogs was not returned by the time the Sentinel went to press on Tuesday.

The officer did bring two dogs for the woman to look at last week as possible suspects, but she said they were not the animals that attacked her.