The sun was starting to set on Sept. 29 and Herndon-area resident Chuck Saunders had just sat down to watch television when his wife darted into the house. Outside, just seconds earlier, she had witnessed her neighbor, Stephanie Duenas, being attacked by her four-year-old pit bull, Melvis.
With no shoes or socks, Saunders ran out his back door, scaled the Duenas’s wooden-planked fence and throw himself at the dog as he attempted to pull him of Stephanie, who was bleeding profusely from multiple bites to her arm and hand.
Within minutes, Stephanie Duenas’ husband Jorge had arrived at home and an ambulance was on its way, both courtesy of another neighbor who had seen the attack and called Jorge on his cell phone before calling 911.
When the ambulance arrived, Stephanie Duenas was not in good shape. The loss of blood had caused her blood pressure to dip down to a critical level.
Animal control arrived at the house and took possession of the dog, which was later put down.
ABOUT SIX WEEKS LATER, Stephanie Duenas was playing with her two other dogs, Nila and Tumi, in the backyard of her Dranesville area home. Aside from a medium-sized white bandage on her upper left arm, all recognizable physical signs of the attack had faded.
In the end, Stephanie Duenas was treated for several bite marks to her arm and hand, and a broken thumb.
They never found out why Melvis, who the Duenas’s referred to as a "sweetheart," had all of a sudden lost control and attacked her. Despite all of the bad things that happened on that day, there has been more good as a result of how people reacted to the incident, Stephanie and Jorge Duenas said.
Stephanie Duenas had survived as a result of the courageous acts of their neighbors. And most specifically they point to the danger that Saunders put himself in.
"I don’t think that anybody really realizes how much courage that it takes to put yourself directly into a risky situation like that," said Jorge Duenas. "If a dog is attacking somebody like that, it’s not just an easy thing to jump in there and pull him off."
Asked about his heroic action, Saunders said, "We would have done things for each other if we needed and right there at that time, she was in trouble," said Saunders, who was treated for bite wounds to the arm, which required stitches. "When something like that happens you have to move quickly. We were just lucky that my wife had seen her outside when it happened."
On whether he would do it again, Saunders said that there was no question — he just might have done it a little differently.
"I think that the first thing I asked for after pulling Melvis away from her was some shoes and socks, because my feet were cold," Saunders said, laughing. "Obviously I wouldn’t want to get bit like I did, but it all came out well in the end."
IN THE AFTERMATH of the attack, the Duenas’s said that they see life differently and appreciate the "small things" about life more than they did before.
"You never know when your time is going to come, and I think it just makes you see things and the people in your life in a different kind of way," Stephanie said. "Life is a very fragile thing."
While they are still holding some of the psychological burden associated with the attack, the Duenas’s, self-proclaimed dog lovers, have said that it has not changed their love for dogs. They added that they would never trade the several good years they had with Melvis before the incident.
Most striking about their experience is the reassurance that they have neighbors who care enough to get involved in a situation, even if it means putting their safety in jeopardy.
"If Chuck [Saunders] hadn’t done what he did, I really don’t think that Stephanie would be here today," Jorge Duenas said. "We’ve been together for so long and I guess I always thought that we would be with each other until we were old … and it was really scary that day."
"We’re just so happy because everybody helped in different ways that day."
The end result has demonstrated the fortune they had for living in an area where people care.
"You don’t always get to live with people who will get involved if something like this were to happen," Jorge Duenas said. "And we’re lucky that we do."