Felicia Hambrick was holding the baby when the pit bull came out of the bedroom.
She was caring for her best friend Cassy’s three children while Cassy was away on an anniversary trip with her husband. The children were 6 years old, 3 years old, and 8 months old. Felicia was giving the youngest apple juice while the other two watched television. Roscoe, the family’s pit bull, had been shut in a room for a while, frantic and trying to get out.
When he managed to get out, he went straight for her and knocked her down. As she fell, Felicia made sure the baby’s head didn’t hit the floor. Then she put her body between the dog and the girl, and stayed there as Roscoe bit and scratched her. “I knew he didn’t want her”, she later said. “He was coming for me.”
Cassy’s mother, who had stepped out for a moment, came back, hit the dog with a broom, and managed to get him away, though she was also bitten on the arms. Firefighters treated Felicia. The baby didn’t have a single scratch. Roscoe was put down afterward, and Cassy summed it up this way: “If the dog had gotten to my baby somehow, she could have died.”
