You could almost hear Treva Rogers' heart break when she got a call from a veterinarian office Tuesday afternoon. Her beloved Chihuahua was dead.

"They killed my puppy," she cried.

Two dogs, possibly pitbull mixes, attacked Rogers, a 75-year-old woman, and her small dog Tuesday morning as they were walking on a gravel road off of Crosby Road on North Whidbey. Rogers ended up at the hospital with multiple bite marks. Her dog, Budda, ended up in surgery, but was too badly injured to survive.

Island County Animal Control Office Carol Barnes is investigating the vicious attack and is asking the community for help in finding the dogs, as well as their owners. Witnesses said the dogs were white with brown markings, young and possibly pitbull mixes. The owners drove a red van.

Anyone with information can reach Barnes by having her paged through the ICOM dispatch center at 679-9567.

Rogers, a Yakima resident, was on Whidbey visiting her sister and her sister's husband, Clarice "Dee" and James Taylor. Rogers explained that she was walking just after 8 a.m. with her leashed Chihuahua when another dog came out of nowhere and grabbed Budda by the leg. She picked up her dog, but then another strange dog appeared.

Rogers fought to protect her pooch.

"One had him by the leg and one tried to get his throat. I had him in the middle," she said.

The dogs kept on jumping up on Rogers and knocked her over three times. On the ground, she tried to protect Budda with her body, but the dogs pulled him from under her. When she stood up, they bit her all over both hands and on her arm. They lunged at her throat. But she never let go.

"I was very scared, but I wasn't going to let them take him," she said. "I just thought they were going to kill us both."

Rogers somehow made it to the house and fell in through the kitchen door. Clarice was getting some coffee and saw her sister crumple to the floor, covered in blood from head to feet.

"The puppy was just mangled. I thought he was dead. I thought she was dead too," she said, motioning to her sister. "It was the most horrifying thing I've ever seen."

But the attack wasn't over. The dogs came into the house and pursued the injured Chihuahau through the kitchen to the next room.

James was in a back room with a DirectTV installer when he heard his wife call for him. He and the installer had to fight the dogs, kicking them several times, to drive them out of the house. The riled canines wouldn't leave the garage, so James whacked them with a broom until they ran to the road.

"They were still determined," he said. "They kept trying to circle back. It was really scary."

Barnes said a neighbor caught the dogs, which had rabies tags and ID tags. The man called the owners, a couple with a toddler, who picked up the dogs in a red van.

The doctors told Rogers that she'll be OK as long as the savage bites all over both hands don't become infected. Besides the bites, she said she's completely covered with bruises.

"She was very brave in trying to save her dog's life," Barnes said. "It shows how much she loved him."

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