Teddy has to wear a cone because of injuries received when the dog was attacked by a neighbor's dog in Tyngsboro. Freddy, back, was also injured. Sun/Bob Whitaker
Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our MyCapture site.
Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our MyCapture site.
TYNGSBORO -- Patricia Pendergast has had run-ins with her next-door neighbor's dog before.
Pendergast said the dog -- a large Great Dane/pit-bull mix known as "the bad black dog" in her household on Riverbend Road -- has made her afraid even to go into her own backyard, let alone to allow her two little bichon frisés out.
Pendergast claims the "bad dog" attacked her little 12-pound dogs -- now 8 and 9 years old -- first in May 2012. That attack left one dog, Freddy, with life-threatening injuries, she said. This month, after another reported attack, it was the other pup, Teddy, that got it worse.
"What's right is right, and what's wrong is wrong," Pendergast said in her home this past week, with her recovering
Patrick and Patricia Pendergast, of Tyngsboro, talk about their dogs, Freddy, left, and Teddy, being attacked by a neighbor's dog. Sun/Bob Whitaker
Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our MyCapture site.
Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our MyCapture site.
dogs at her feet. "I've been known to be walked on, and I can look the other way and I don't make waves because I'm not that kind of person, but when you get to a certain point ... If that dog stays, it's just not going to be pleasant."
Pendergast, 57, said it was about 8 p.m., on Sunday, Sept. 8, when she let her tiny white dogs out in the yard to do their business before bed. She said the pair couldn't have been out more than three minutes before she looked down and saw the neighbor's dog in her doorway, with one of her dogs in his mouth.
Pendergast said she started screaming and hit the back of the dog, causing him to drop the bichon to the ground. Then, the Great Dane went after the other, picking him up in his mouth, too, according to Pendergast.
Her husband, Patrick, 65, brought the bleeding pets inside. Pendergast said she has seen severe injuries before -- she has been an operating-room nurse at Lowell General Hospital and Saints Medical Center for the last 32 years -- and she was terrified.
She rushed both dogs to an emergency animal hospital in Nashua, and between stitches for both dogs, the final bill was about $2,100. But Pendergast says this is not about finances -- it's about feeling safe on
Freddy, one of two bichon frisŽs owned by Patrick and Patricia Pendergast, has stitches from an attack by a dog owned by the Pendergasts' neighbors in Tyngsboro. Their other dog, Teddy, was also injured. Sun/Bob Whitaker
Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our MyCapture site.
Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our MyCapture site.
her own property.
Town Animal Control Officer Dave Robson responded the following day after the Pendergasts called police to report the attack. Pendergast said she didn't call last year because the neighbors said the Great Dane was a "rescue dog" and he would be leaving soon anyway.
Robson cited the Great Dane's owner for not abiding by the town's leash law and for not having the dog up-to-date on his rabies vaccinations. The Great Dane was also placed in quarantine at the home for 10 days.
Tyngsboro police found the case was about to get more complicated when they discovered the Pendergasts' neighbors have the same last name.
The owner of the dog, according to Patricia Pendergast, is Caitlin Pendergast, the daughter of Maire Pendergast, who is Patrick Pendergast's deceased brother's widow. Patrick's brother, author Jay Pendergast, died about 16 years ago, and now Caitlin and Maire live in the house on Riverbend Road.
Caitlin and Maire Pendergast did not return multiple calls seeking comment in the past week, and did not respond to a letter left at their home requesting a call-back.
The quarantine period has since ended with no further incidents, but Patricia Pendergast says she is still concerned. She now walks her dogs outside on a leash, but she said they tremble and look over at the other yard, "spooked."
Robson said since the May 2012 incident was not reported to his office, this is considered to be the first attack by the Great Dane, and he said he has found the animal to be friendly.
"When a little dog comes charging out, and the little dogs are nervous, they startle a big dog," Robson said in the Great Dane's defense. "They're animals. They react."
Patricia Pendergast said her dogs did nothing wrong. She's taking steps now to call for a formal public hearing before the Board of Selectmen.
She said she was told by authorities she is within her rights to shoot the Great Dane if it comes after her or her pets again, but she said she's not a "gun person." She'd just like to see the dog go.
"It's done a number on me, you know? It keeps happening, happening and in fact, it happened again," she said. "All I could think is, 'He's killing your dog in front of your eyes.' ... What would anybody do? What can a person do?"
Selectmen Karyn Puleo and Bob Jackson said they were contacted by the traumatized dog owner and are still trying to learn more about the attack.
Town bylaws say selectmen have the official word on the fate of dogs in such cases. Some Massachusetts communities allow for "vicious dogs" to be banished from town or euthanized.
Puleo, who serves as selectmen chairman, said she has reached out to the town's legal counsel and isn't sure if euthanization could be on the table.
"There would have to be a thorough hearing if the town of Tyngsboro was going to make any recommendation as to that extent," she said.
Robson's official report to the town claims only that one of Patricia Pendergast's bichons was attacked in the incident, though both dogs had stitches and cuts in their bodies during a recent visit by a Sun reporter and photographer.
"My feeling is that this is an awful situation that no one had any control over," Robson wrote at the end of his findings, adding that neighbors reported to him all the Pendergasts' dogs have gotten loose in the area in the past.
Police Chief Richard Howe said police are now working to investigate another aspect of the case in which the Caitlin and Maire Pendergast say Patricia Pendergast shut off their shared water well after the attack. The chief said he's unsure of whether charges could be brought forward. The Tyngsboro Board of Health has also been notified.
Patricia Pendergast said she and her husband rigged up their own water supply to help out the widow of Jay Pendergast 16 years ago after her husband died and her well broke. Patricia Pendergast told The Sun she turned off the water several days ago "for leverage" and told Robson to tell her neighbors, "It's the dog or the water."
She added she has yet to receive a call or an apology from the Pendergasts next door.
"They have their own well (and) they've chosen not to repair it," she said, adding that they shared the well "out of respect for Pat's late brother but the respect is used up now."
Follow Samantha Allen on Twitter and Tout @SAllen_89.
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