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Sixty-year-old Lisa Louisseize-Thompson was walking her boyfriend’s dog — a yorkie-cross named Rocky — last Thursday when they were charged by two big dogs.
Louisseize-Thompson and her boyfriend, Jorge Silveira, live just around the corner from each other in the southeast Calgary community of Forest Lawn. Louisseize-Thompson said Rocky loved to walk, usually twice per day.
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It was a Thursday afternoon outing, sometime between 2:30 and 2:45 p.m., when things took a terrible turn.
“I just stepped off the curb, and these two dogs came out of nowhere,” she said.
The dogs were fighting their way toward Rocky, with one able to clench its jaws down on him.
“If I got bit I didn’t give a damn. I put myself between the two dogs (and Rocky).”
Louisseize-Thompson walks with a cane, which she used to fend off the attackers.
“I physically broke the cane over the dog’s head to get him to release Rocky,” she said.
Louisseize-Thompson guessed that the whole altercation lasted less than three minutes. She said one of the dogs had white fur, the other a mix of brown and white. She wasn’t sure what breed they were.
When the dogs ran away, she ran back toward Silveira’s house with a terrified Rocky in her arms.
Silveira’s upstairs neighbour was able to help her with Rocky.
“She could see I was in so much pain, because I’m not supposed to run — especially without a stick,” Louisseize-Thompson said.
They took Rocky to the vet, where they received far from good news.
“They told us that his ribs and spleen were separated, and his back was broken in two places,” she said. “He had four puncture wounds — and in his lungs.”
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Rocky eventually died before Silveira had a chance to say goodbye.
Louisseize-Thompson said: “He didn’t deserve this in any way shape or form, I mean Rocky’s best friend is a cat.”
“I’m not sleeping because as soon as I fall asleep, it all happens again,” she said.
The City of Calgary said in an emailed statement Friday that “there is currently no threat to the public; two dogs are in our custody.”
The city indicated that investigations are underway, and no further information was immediately available.
Louisseize-Thompson said when it comes to the behaviour she saw in the attackers, it comes down to bad owners.
“If you have a big dog you should train it. Because it’s like having an out-of-control child — you don’t just let it go running into the streets.”
Under the responsible pet ownership bylaw, the city has the ability to declare dogs “vicious” or a “nuisance,” which requires owners to adhere to certain requirements such as behavioural modification training and properly secured fencing, or ensuring dogs are muzzled if taken out.
A separate incident earlier this year saw a dog owner face 18 city bylaw charges after his dogs attacked multiple others and killed one.
— With files from Laurice Gomes
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