A three-year-old girl lost half of her grin when her family’s rescue dog unexpectedly attacked, sinking its teeth into her cheek. After her daughter, Emily, requested a puppy, Rebekka Bolline chose to foster rescue dog Tater Tot.
However, things took a dark and tragic turn within 24 hours of bringing Tater Tot home. Tater Tot spun around and snapped at Emily’s face, digging its fangs into her cheeks and lip as she sat on the living room floor petting her new fuzzy friend’s back.
Rebekka shrieked as she sought to free her daughter from the pup’s tight grasp on her face.
“In a matter of seconds, it barked and latched on her face and then started shaking her side to side, while I’m screaming, ‘get off my baby, get off my baby’, in terror,” Rebekka recalled.
“At that moment, I just thought that she wasn’t going to make it and that she was going to die. I didn’t know how to help her. “I couldn’t get the dog off her. I kept screaming. I don’t remember how I got the dog off – I blocked it out.”
When the dog eventually let go of the toddler, Rebekka rushed her to the hospital, her right cheek hanging off.
Emily suffered major muscle damage on one side of her face as a result of the dog’s attack, which saw him “eat through” her face and “ingest” parts of her flesh.
The family is currently awaiting surgery to possibly repair the muscles in Emily’s face, and they are raising donations to support their medical expenses. “They said that the dog chewed up [her right cheek] quite a bit, so it took her muscle,” Rebekka shared.
“They said she won’t be able to smile on that side of her face. She has stitches inside of her mouth because the dog ate through her face completely. “Every once in a while, she’s in a lot of pain she’ll point to herself and say, ‘mummy I die, mummy, I die. The puppy was hungry,’ which is heartbreaking.
“When she’s feeling better, she’ll color or she’ll paint a little bit. My whole family is trying to get her things to entertain her because she can’t really get up and play right now.” Little Emily is still trying to get over the shock of it all, too.
“Before the incident, she was a mommy’s girl. She always did sleep with me, but now it’s like she can’t fall asleep on her own at all,” Rebekka added.
“She’s doing better than what I would have anticipated, but she’s definitely got that fear of animals now and she used to love animals. “I will never trust a dog ever again. It snapped for no reason.” Tater Tot was taken away by animal control while the family was in the hospital.