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A Florida woman, 55, has revealed how she literally escaped death after she suffered a horror dog attack that left her arms and leg shredded by playing dead in a trench for hours.
Stephanie Walker, a former food truck owner was returning to her 40-acre farm in Hamilton County at midnight in September 2022 when the nightmare unfolded.
How the Dog Attacked Her
It was pitch black and after checking on her dogs in the feed room she noticed that a rescue pitbull mix named Buddy, who she was looking after temporarily for a friend, had not been to the bathroom.
She grabbed a flash light and a leash so she could walk him – but when she stepped out the barn, the 80-pound dog with a ‘huge’ neck and head began to growl.
She Heard the Bone Break
Seconds later, he pounced. He latched onto her right arm and ripped it apart. Then he sank his teeth into her thigh and tore a huge chunk out of it before attacking her arms again, which is when she heard the bone break.
Telling her story to DailyMail, Walker said: ‘I was screaming “Buddy stop! Why are you doing this?”
‘I was having a conversation with a dog that was trying to kill me’
‘I knew at that point it was ‘do or die. There was no one coming to rescue me.’
She Was Begging Him to Stop
Walker desperately tried to fight back and choke the dog with the leash she still had in her left hand but did not have the strength.
‘I was screaming, begging him to stop,’ she recalled.
Alone, unarmed and terrified, it was at that moment she felt her mentality shift and froze. She stayed as still as possible while the dog grabbed her left shoulder.
The mom-of-three managed to drag herself to a nearby trench that stretched across her property – around 32 inches deep and 18 inches wide.
She Played Dead to Save Herself
She said: ‘I remember thinking fighting this dog isn’t working for me – I am going to play dead.’
She curled up in the fetal position in order protect her torso, and sat in the mud, dirt and gravel, as heavy rain poured down on her.
It wasn’t until 5am when her alarm went off that she was able to locate the phone under the bed.
The Calvaries Came
Finally, after five hours of hell, the paramedics, police and her son arrived to help.
She said the moment she got into the ambulance, the dog was seen running down the road towards the barn looking for her.
She told the sheriff the dog was a menace and to ‘shoot’ him. That gunshot was the last thing she heard before falling into a deep medicated sleep.
‘Then it was over,’ she recalled.
Her Hospital Experience
Doctors were concerned about how much blood she had lost and quickly airlifted to the University of Florida Gainesville Hospital.
Walker spent the next six weeks in the hospital‘s burn unit. She had serious infections from the dog bites after lying in the dirt and mud in the trench.
Her broken right arm had to be completely reconstructed and her left arm was missing portions of skin. Her right thigh was also badly damaged.
What Kept Her Alive
‘The driving thought that kept me alive was that I did not want my 19-year-old daughter to find me dead on the farm,’ she said.
She Didn’t Know…
Walker explained that she was only looking after Buddy for a few weeks before he went to live with a woman in New Hampshire.
She said she was never informed by the Miami-Dade County shelter that the dog was dangerous, but the driver who transported him to her home had mentioned he was aggressive. At her home, he growled a bit but appeared calmer.
‘I thought I was safe since I was in my own home,’ she said. ‘I had an exit strategy, but once I was out on the farm in that open space there was no exit strategy I had no weapon. I didn’t carry a gun, it never occurred to me.’
