Florida woman fights off gator dragging leashed puppy into creek while on walk

LAND O’ LAKES, Fla. – A Pasco County woman and her puppy are lucky to be alive after an alligator dragged them into a creek.

The backstory:

Wright says she rescued Dax, who only weighs about five pounds, a couple of months ago.

She says her family has lived in the home for about 20 years and has never seen a gator in the creek behind it.

“So, I walked him back here, which I very rarely do,” she said.

“He was on a leash and everything, but I had just heard a squeal, and then I got tugged,” Wright said.

Wright says she was standing on the bank looking away from the creek when she felt a tug on the leash.

Wright says the alligator had crept up the bank, grabbed Dax and started dragging both of them down into the water.

“It looked like he had him by the throat,” Wright said. “Literally a half a centimeter, I think, it would have just punctured in his throat and most likely killed him.”

“But my left arm was in the alligator at this point,” she said.

“I got him flipped over with my left arm in his mouth and I punched a couple of times and I think I did like an elbow, and got him like right here and he just loosened his grip enough that I could pull it out,” she said.

Wright wrestled her arm out of the gator’s mouth, grabbed Dax and bolted up onto the bank.

She called 911 and first responders and a trapper came out to wrangle the gator.

Wright had cuts on her leg and up her arm, which had to be bandaged. She says Dax wasn’t injured.

Although Wright says she doesn’t usually walk Dax in the backyard, she says she’ll only walk Dax in the front yard from now on.

What they’re saying:

Wright is still shaken up, but she’s thankful that she and Dax are safe, and that all the alligator managed to get away with was one of her sandals.