A Tennessee mother says she never imagined the dog she trusted most would leave her fighting for her life, and ultimately cost her a leg.
Amanda Mears, 42, was left with catastrophic injuries after an attack inside her Murfreesboro home on December 10, an ordeal that ultimately ended with doctors amputating her leg below the knee.
She stepped in to protect her foster dog — and everything changed
The single mother and healthcare worker said she was getting ready to take her mixed Pit Bull–American Staffordshire terrier, Dennis, out for a walk when her foster dog, an American Bully named Ralphie, suddenly escaped from a bedroom.
Mears told the Daily Mail she had noticed in the weeks prior that Dennis had been trying to attack Ralphie, prompting her to carefully keep the two dogs apart. Ralphie, she said, had been in her care as a foster since July.
But when Ralphie rushed into the room, Dennis lunged first.
Trying to protect the foster dog, Mears instinctively jumped between them, and that’s when the attack turned on her.
‘I didn’t feel pain — just adrenaline’
Dennis clamped down on her leg and refused to let go, tearing through flesh as Mears screamed for her 10-year-old son to hide in his room.
“I didn’t feel any pain because of the adrenaline,” she later told The Mirror. “I’ve broken up dog fights before, so I thought I could handle it.”
Desperate, she used her free leg and arms to choke Dennis until he finally released her.
By then, the injuries were catastrophic.
Dennis also bit her left hand and broke her right arm during the struggle. Ralphie was unharmed.
Why she believes Ralphie survived
Mears believes her foster dog survived because he never fought back.
“As there was no one to fight, Dennis got bored and eventually let go,” she said.
When paramedics arrived, her leg was barely attached. She had lost so much blood that the ambulance had to stop at a nearby hospital for an emergency transfusion before continuing to Nashville.
Once stabilized, doctors delivered a devastating choice.
The decision that changed her life forever
Doctors told Mears she could either undergo at least a dozen painful surgeries over the next two years — or have her leg amputated below the knee.
“I decided to have my leg amputated,” she said. “To save it, I would have been in constant pain.”
After a week in the hospital, Mears faced another painful decision: Dennis was euthanized.
“He was my best friend,” she said. “I raised him from two weeks old. It hurt — but it wasn’t a difficult decision.”
‘I’m not angry — I’m just sad’
The attack came at an especially difficult time. According to a GoFundMe created on her behalf, Mears had recently lost her job and her medical insurance. Her medical bills have already surpassed $25,000.
She has since returned to work, documenting the challenges of working one-handed while her arm remains in a cast. She is expected to be fitted for a prosthetic leg soon and says she experiences the strange sensation of feeling a foot that is no longer there.
Despite everything, Mears says she refuses to let the trauma define her, or change her love for dogs.
“I’m not angry,” she said. “I’m just sad that it escalated like that.”
“What has happened, happened,” she added. “I can only move forward.”
