Two family dogs are lucky to be alive after their owner says they were violently mauled by a wild animal in Anthem over the weekend.
Holly Blankenship said her family was out when the attack took place Saturday morning.
She came home to see her dogs covered in blood, and their entire yard spattered with blood.
“We let them outside not thinking that anything was going to hurt them in the safety of our own backyard,” said Blankenship. “Their faces were mauled with scratches and tore up their necks.”
Initially, she believed the dogs had gotten into a fight, but when she looked closer she noticed the gashes and wounds appeared to be more like the claws of a big cat.
“It was like a big cat scratched across her face,” said Blankenship. “And then all these cat claw marks on her ear.”
Ziggy got it the worst. Blankenship thinks the animal jumped the wall and pounced on her first.
Riley came to her rescue as the fight carried on all over the yard.
Blankenship says at one point the fight spilled into pool.
At that point, she thinks the animal took off, the dogs climbed out and collapsed on the front porch.
“I was terrified,” said Blankenship. “I was terrified they weren’t going to make it.”
The family took them to the vet, where they were watched over for a few days.
There was concern that Ziggy wasn’t going to make it, but she pulled through.
Blankenship said the vet couldn’t quite tell what animal attacked their dogs, but says it was either a mountain lion or a bobcat.
“Ziggy would not have made it without Riley, I guarantee that, I mean Riley definitely saved her life for sure,” added Blankenship.
Tonight, both dogs are recovering, but they still have many more vet visits in the future.
The vet bill is already up in the thousands.
There is a GoFundMe setup if you’d like to help Ziggy and Riley.
Blankenship just hopes what happened to her dogs serves as a warning to everyone to not let their guard down.
