Two stray dogs attacked and killed a small poodle on Preston Drive late last month, injuring the poodle’s elderly owner in the attack.
Tina Koza said she had just taken Spike, her six-pound toy poodle, for a walk on Friday, June 29, when the dogs showed up on her front porch and attacked her pet. Koza said she tried to pry her poodle from the mouth of one of the dogs, and sustained a large cut to one of her fingers in the process. She said she wasn’t strong enough to pry open its jaws to save her dog.
Police are still looking for the strays, described as large chows, two-and-half-feet tall and black with tan on the sides.
“I can’t describe it — the horror,” Koza said. “The dog in the mouth of this big black dog — this dog chewing my pet, you know. If, in the future, this dog hurt a little baby, I would feel terrible.”
Police knocked on doors for two days looking for the dogs. Police spokesperson Liz Wylie said she believes the dogs may have found their way back home. It is now up to the chows’ owners, or others who know of their whereabouts, to come forward.
Koza’s husband, Walter Koza, came home right after the attack. He said he unsuccessfully tried to approach the dogs, which had blood on their mouths, to read any tags on their collars. But with little time to spare, he had to take his wife to the hospital and the dog to the vet.
Koza said a nurse she met at the hospital had seen the dogs wandering through the former farm on Grant Road. There were also reports of the dogs being seen on Rosa Court off Covington Road.
For several days after the attack, Koza thought she might require rabies shots, but her doctor has since assured her that her hand is healing well enough to avoid the painful procedure. If the dogs were to be found, they could be tested for rabies.
Wylie recommends that people steer clear of stray dogs. She added that police can often track down a stray if notified quickly.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the dogs can call the police non-emergency line at (650) 903-6395.
E-mail Daniel DeBolt at ddebolt@mv-voice.com
