Florida woman wrestles with an alligator to save her dog

There’s nothing this woman wouldn’t do for her beloved dog, even if it means risking her own life.

Lori Beiswenger owns a golf course in Inverness, Florida, where alligators lurking in the water hazards are a fairly common site. But earlier this week, a gator on the course became much more than a simple occupational hazard.

According to ABC News, Beiswenger was out and about earlier this week, doing some gardening with her nine-year-old terrier-mix dog, Hope.

Beiswenger was working close to a newrby pond when she heard the dog frantically screaming. After racing down to the pond, Beiswenger quickly noticed the seven-and-a-half foot gator pulling her dog into the water.

“I hear the most God awful, piercing scream that I have ever heard in my life,” she told ABC News.

Instinct took over and Beiswenger jumped into action, leaping into the pond and grabbing the alligator by its tail with her bare hands.

“I wasn’t thinking,” Beiswenger told WTSP 10 News. “It was the dumbest bravest thing I’ve ever done, but I wasn’t going to let her go.”

Beiswenger began to wrestle with the gator, pulling on its tail at least three times before the gator had finally let go of the dog.

“She [Hope] was just floating all you could see was the top of her nose and we didn’t know where the gator was,” Beiswenger told WTSP 10 News.

A volunteer at the golf course stepped in to help. Jody Daniels grabbed a shovel and picked up Hope’s floating body out of the water and brought it back onto the shore.

Miraculously, Hope survived the attack. She underwent a three hour long surgery for a severed artery.

As for the alligator, it was trapped and killed, according the WTSP 10 News.

This is not the first time Hope has faced a near death experience. In fact, it’s actually the dog’s third scary brush with death. Beiswenger adopted the dog before it was suppose to be put down and the second time after Hope had survived getting hit by a car.

“She is quite the wonder dog,” Beiswenger told Bay News 9.