(PENSACOLA) --- Theresa Cavnar was walking away from her friend's front door after dropping off a sympathy card to Julie Horn when she feared for her life last Thursday.
"Our backyard shares a fence, and I used to work with her mom, who was once my co-worker, and she passed away," Cavnar said today as she sits confined to a chair when she told OpGov.ai her story.
After knocking on Horn's door, Cavnar said that when no one answered, she began walking away.
"I heard Julie say 'hey,' and I turned around, and she was holding a big brown dog by the collar," Cavnar said. "The dog was just growling viciously and then lunged, and he hit me on the back and landed really hard on the sidewalk."
Cavnar said her first instinct was to "put my arms up around my head to protect myself, and he bit my leg and turned me over." Cavnar said she looked up and saw Horn standing there in shock.
"She didn't call his name or say anything," Cavnar said. "That's when he turned me over and started going for my throat and my face."
Cavnar said all she "could think to do was to throw my arms over my face like a cage."
"When I was trying to protect this part of my face, he got my throat, and when I did, he got my chin, and then he went for my nose, but he bit me on the elbow, and he hit the nerve, so my hand went completely numb as soon as he did it."
That is when Cavnar said the dog got a hold of her one arm and began "jerking it till he got flesh out.
"I was rolling back and forth and from side to side trying to get him away from me, and when I went to roll to the right, Julie, the owner, was on the ground beside me," Cavnar said. "I don't know if she was coming to grab him, and she fell, then her husband came out, and the dog started attacking him, and that is how I got away."
Cavnar's mother, Faye, and her friend, visiting from Tennessee, witnessed the attack from the car.
"My mom got her cane, and I had to holler,' Get back to the car because I was afraid it would attack my mom and Pat," Cavnar said. "I was afraid they would be next."
Cavnar said on the way to the Ascension Heart emergency room that they called the Escambia County Sheriff's office, which told her they could not help and to call animal control.
Animal control showed up at the hospital, taking pictures of her injuries before telling her it is her responsibility to prove the dog is dangerous and has only seven days to get paperwork, regardless of her apparent and disturbing injuries.
Despite detailing her experience and the obvious traumatic injuries, Cavnar still has to have an affidavit signed before a notary in order for an investigation to begin.
"He bit and pulled and jerked like killing an animal, so now my shoulder keeps popping out of the socket," Cavnar said. "There are no bites, but it keeps popping out, and now I can't reach for things. I can hardly feed myself. I can't dress myself, all those personal things."
After speaking of the apparent injuries, the only thing on Cavnar's mind is her daughter.
"I have to be able to take care of her," Cavnar said.
Cavnar can't get the thought of her mother witnessing it out of her mind.
"Suppose it had been my daughter," Cavnar said, then asked, "What if you saw your daughter attacked and not be able to do anything about it?"
She added, "It would be harder to watch my daughter be attacked than to be attacked."
Horn has contacted Cavnar via text. Horn has expressed her deepest apologies and regrets, offering to show her the dog's vaccination records and to pay for the medical bills.
Cavnar wants more. She wants answers. She wants to know why the dog that almost killed her remains on the other side of the fence. She wants to know why her mother, who watched her almost get killed by the dog, had to hear it barking at her when she took the trash out today.
There have to be better laws to protect the community, Cavnar said.
OpGov.ai will be contacting officials at the beginning of the week to find out why the dog remains on the other side of Cavnar's fence after it almost killed her.
"There are children in that cul-de-sac," Canvar said. "When I was driving up to drop off the card, a little girl was walking into her house."
As a reporter, what is most striking is Cavnar's concern for animals, saying that, as a dog sitter, she is worried people will blame the dog.
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