On the evening of January 7th, as they returned from an evening walk, my fiancé, Brandon, and our six-year-old miniature schnauzer, Bart, were attacked by a stranger's pitbull mix 20ft from our front door.

Upon hearing a serious commotion outside, I ran from our apartment and found my fiancé fiercely trying to protect our dog as a large black dog continued to bite and tear at Bart. I had no time to think and jumped in to help Brandon. The attacking dog's owner was present but was not helpful and at one point stood up and walked away saying, "F*** it, shoot the dog."

Our neighbor ran outside and ultimately helped us pull the much larger dog away from Bart. At this point, Bart was bleeding profusely and clearly had severe wounds. There was no way one person could transport him to the hospital, so Brandon and I immediately applied pressure to the wounds we could and drove to the nearest emergency vet, MedVet Salt Lake City.

Bart was rushed in under critical care, and we were placed in a waiting room. After being seen by the medical professionals, we were faced with the option of pursuing life-saving surgery or ethical euthanasia.

I've tried to honor the severity of this attack without being gruesome, but the damage was extensive.

Bart's skin on his back had been ripped from the muscle, he had two exposed hernias, and the doctors were not yet able to tell us if any internal organs had been damaged.

Our pets are our family. We did not blink. We gave them the credit cards we had and asked them to save him by any means possible. We were rightfully devastated and traumatized. Not only was our beloved dog viciously mauled and nearly killed, but we had both witnessed something so horrific and gruesome... to hear your loved ones screaming... No one should ever have to go through that. It is something that will haunt us for the rest of our lives.

Bart underwent extensive surgery, with more anticipated, but, by some miracle, no internal organ damage. One of the bites was 1/4 inch from hitting one of his kidneys. He has massive stitches along his back, legs, and belly, is currently on 7 medications, and has 3 JP drains that we've been monitoring and recording twice daily.

He was able to come home Friday the 10th with a follow-up surgery scheduled for Tuesday the 14th.

He is one tough dog with a very tough dad.

Brandon suffered from several bites and visited a doctor after we got news of Bart's successful surgery.

Our initial vet bill was $8,206. With the help of our immediate family we've been able to reduce this amount to $6,700, which includes Bart's second surgery. We are still waiting to hear what to expect moving forward.

We are working with animal control, but unfortunately, we believe the attacking dog and owner are unsheltered. We have not been able to find them since the incident, but after I posted on the NextDoor app, we were told of another neighbor and their pup who were attacked, luckily not as severely, by the same dog. He was spotted in the area up to two days after the incident, but animal control was not able to find them. In SLC, animal control handles all dog attack incidents rather than the police. We are largely concerned as our neighborhood is right next to Liberty Park, which has massive amounts of dog traffic, and we don't want any other family to go through this. Normally in Utah, the courts would hold the owner of the attacking dog responsible for medical bills (according to the animal control officer working our case), but it's incredibly unlikely anything will come of this in our case.

Bart has a long road to recovery, but something in the universe along with the incredible surgeons at MedVet helped us save his life. To see my fiancé breathe for the first time in days and get to be with his best friend again, there is no price.

Brandon and I both work in education and are facing thousands in vet bills. We have been asked several times if there is a way for folks to help out. MedVet does not accept any forms of payment except from the owner. We were encouraged to create this GoFundMe to possibly help alleviate some of the financial stress of this emotional and traumatic event. We are so incredibly grateful for our community-- we have received so much love and understanding as we navigate this, and it's impossible to have all of the words to express our gratitude.