He begged and pleaded for his baby to wake up, but for little Faith Hendricks, who was bitten by the family pit bull, it was too late.
Devastated dad Nowell Hendricks says he was on his way to fetch one-year-old Faith from his parents’ house last Friday when he got the news that she had just been attacked by Bruno, the dog his had since it was a puppy.
He arrived at his parents home in Kalkoentjie Street, Mount Pleasant, to find his bleeding mom lying in the doorway with Faith lying behind the door.
“I wanted to kill the dog. I found him lying in his kennel and hit him with the spade,” says Nowell.
He picked up his barely breathing child and was about to run to the nearest hospital when a neighbour offered to drive them in his car.
“She tried to hold onto me but she was too weak. When I put her down on the hospital bed, she was struggling to breathe,” says Nowell.
This was too much for him so he went outside to wait for his wife.
“When my brother came out and held me, I just knew…” says the broken dad.
Anthean, 35, said she cuddled her daughter for the last time.
“She looked so peaceful, as if she was sleeping,” says the mom.
“I could see bite marks on her face, legs and a deep cut in her neck.
“She was just so perfect. She was like an angel that was borrowed to me.”
Nowell says his mom Evelyn’s hand was nearly bitten off in the attack.
“When [my sister] Victoria stabbed the dog to get it off Faith, my mom grabbed her and that’s when he bit her on the arm,” says Nowell.
While Evelyn crawled into the house with Faith, the dog tried to drag her back by her leg.
Nowell says doctors reattached his mother’s arm with a steel rod and pins, while the bones in her foot were crushed by the dog’s jaws.
Nowell can’t understand why his pet, which has since been put down, attacked his daughter.
Little Faith will be laid to rest on Saturday.