Lori Beiswenger, a resident of Inverness, Fla., risked her life to save her dog by wrestling with an alligator that was trying to eat her pet on a pond near the nine-hole Point O' Woods Golf Course, which she and her husband owns.
"It was the dumbest, bravest thing I have ever done, but I wasn't going to let her go," Beiswenger said about her brave rescue of her dog Hope, Bay News 9 reported.
Beiswenger jumped into the knee-length water when she heard Hope scream and saw that the dog was trapped in the jaws of a seven-foot crocodile.
Upon seeing her dog in that state, she didn't think twice about risking her own life to save her pet. "I said, 'God, no this can't be happening', and it was the scariest feeling in the world," Beiswenger said.
She immediately grabbed the alligator's tail and yanked it until it let go of the dog and turned its attention toward her. She then hurried back to shore to avoid the alligator.
The canine, which was floated out of the pond on a shovel by Beiswenger's friend, Jodie Daniels, suffered several injuries, including a severed artery, and was rushed to the vet's, the Daily Mail reported.
After surgery and stitches to her chest and side, the dog is currently recovering at home.
"I love this dog," Beiswenger told CBS affiliate WTSP. "I wasn't going to lose her."
An animal control company came to trap the gator the next day and took it away.
