‘Trying to stay alive’: Victim of vicious Hawthorne dog attack still fighting a year later – Action News Jax

PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. – It’s been a year since an 86-year-old Army veteran was brutally attacked by two dogs in Hawthorne and had to celebrate her 87th birthday in the hospital. After losing a leg and an ear in the attack, she is now back home and fighting on.

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“I say I’m going to go all out today. Some days I just feel like going all out,” said Gertrude Bishop, or Terri as everyone knows her.

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But it hasn’t been an easy year. Last year, two dogs escaped from her neighbor’s yard in Hawthorne and brutally attacked Terri as she was getting water from her car.

“I said ‘go home,’ turned around and got water (from my car), and they jumped on me and dragged me to the ground.”

Doctors were forced to amputate Terri’s right leg and ears, and she spent months in the hospital. She still has to go to the VA for rehab, but her only transportation is her son, who lives in Jacksonville. Doctors may still be forced to amputate her left leg. But that hasn’t stopped Terri.

“I believe in God and I believe that the things that happen to us happen for a reason,” she said.

Neighbors said animal control had been called several times in the past about the dogs, but nothing had happened until the attack last year.

Action News Jax previously reported on the increase in calls to Putnam County Animal Control. Now, a new shelter is being built next to the sheriff’s office with room for additional capacity so no animals have to be turned away.

Terri said she doesn’t blame anyone and hopes this is a lesson in forgiveness that everyone can learn from.

“I never felt any feelings of revenge for the accident,” she said. “I was just trying to stay alive. Really trying to stay alive.”

The family has started a GoFundMe campaign to help pay the costs, which include a new $20,000 prosthetic leg.

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