MONROE, N.C. — Rachel Liles and her dog, Thumper, are bandaged and bruised, but happy to be alive.
Liles and Thumper were visiting family in a Monroe neighborhood. She was sitting on a porch when she said a pitbull viciously attacked.
"He picked my dog up first he started shaking him and then he downed him on his back," she said.
Rather than running, the 76-year-old and family members used sticks to try and fight back.
"Yes, he was foaming at the mouth. He was mad. It's like he wanted to kill that dog. I don't know why," Liles said. "I reached to grab my dog and when I did he grabbed my leg."
Liles was bleeding.
"It was burning, stinging," she said.
The dog let go of her leg and family members were able to chase him away.
"That wouldn't hold a bulldog to start with," she said
Liles' son-in-law said the pit bull belonged to his next door neighbor and was kept behind a fence.
"I don't know why he did it," Liles said.
Liles had to have several stitches in her wound and Thumper is still healing from the bite marks to his back, but she's happy that things didn't turn out worse.
"I thought he was going to kill him," she said.