GENEVA, Ala. (WDHN)— A Geneva woman is recovering after a violent dog attack just steps from her home, an ordeal she says left her with lasting physical and emotional scars.
Sheila Pate said she was less than 50 feet from her house when three pit bulls attacked her last week.
“When the first dog grabbed me, he grabbed me between my legs,” Pate told WDHN. “And it was excruciating.”
Pate said the attack happened during what began as a normal morning, just hours after the storms moved through. With debris and downed powerlines littering the surrounding area, she began to walk from her home to Geneva High School, where she works as a lunch lady. That’s when the first pit bull attacked.
Before she could do anything, two more dogs joined the fray, biting and pulling at Pate.
“I got bit on my breast, and that’s when one of them snatched me,” she recalled. “With scars, they’ll heal eventually. But guess what? Mentally, I won’t.”
“So you go, out of your house, that you lived in for seven years, in a neighborhood that never seen these dogs,” Pate told WDHN. “And God as my witness, I screamed several, several times. I saw death, several times. I saw my casket.”
Neighbors and Pate’ son heard her screams near North Morris Street as she fought to survive.
Only after her son arrived to help did the dogs stop their attack. He was also bitten during the struggle.
Pate suffered severe injuries, including deep bite wounds that required more than 100 stitches. Even though it’s over, Pate said the trauma has only continued for her.
“I can’t sleep. I have to lay in a certain position, I see these dogs in my face. I see these dogs telling me, ‘you didn’t die then, but I’m going to get you,’” she said.
Despite this, she’s determined to return to work as part of her healing process, saying, “I live with this. I am going back to work, because if I don’t, I am going to be crazy. I can’t sit in this house, and to hear them dogs and feel them dogs when I sleep.”
The attack came during an already difficult time for Pate, who recently lost her mother. Her funeral was held last Saturday.
“I haven’t dealt with that. I am just trying to work, and focus. We had bury her so, I was going to be buried,” Pate said, her voice shaking.
“I do not sleep. I was about to give up. When I put my hands up, I was going to say Lord I can’t do it, I can’t. And I was really going to take my hands down and tell them to have at it. I couldn’t do it… But my mom? She came, and she said, get up.”
Pate now faces a long recovery as she works to heal both physically and emotionally after the attack.
A GoFundMe for Shiela has been established to help with medical bills due to the dog attack. For anyone interested in donating, click here.