Joey the Great Dane with owner Patti Muccia.

By Kate Breece
HWD Public Affairs

Patti Muccia walks Joey, her 147-pound blue Great Dane, “for miles” every day.

A docile and obedient canine, described by his owner as a “cream puff,” Joey sat patiently on the sidewalk at the crest of a hill awaiting a visit from a friend who regularly walks through the neighborhood. Joey only rose up to greet the man when voice-released by Muccia. Later when Joey ventured into the street, she softly said, “Danger, danger,” and Joey retreated to the sidewalk.

Settled in the Muccia’s backyard to talk about what happened on the morning of Friday, July 22, Muccia described a harrowing story.

That morning she was out for her usual jaunt with Joey when she saw a loose pit bull harrying two small dogs ahead of her. She turned Joey and began to retreat, but by then the pit bull had spotted them. He came on aggressively. “He came across the street and stood next to Joey for two seconds and then went straight for his throat.”

She tried to stop the tangle. “I started yelling at the pit, ‘No! No! Go home! Stop! Stop!’ but he didn’t stop.” She saw that Joey was bleeding from his mouth and head. “I realized that this was going to be a fight to the death.” So, she began hitting the pit bull with a light baton that she always carries. “It did not even faze him.” Seeing that her efforts were inadequate, she then began to scream.

Helix Water District Meter Reader Davis Robbins said he didn't think of himself as a hero. "(I) can’t pass up someone who is yelling for help."

A waste management truck pulled up, but the driver did not get out to assist. “Then I saw a white truck stop in the middle of the street,” she said, referring to a Helix Water District vehicle driven by Meter Reader Davis Robbins. “And out came a guy who started kicking and flaying at the pit. He was just a hero—a white knight! He stopped the fight, I don’t know—just the presence of a man. At that point I was just beyond—I was very upset. So, the pit bull stopped and started heading up the street. I was shaking like a leaf, I couldn’t walk. I was just frozen. Davis (she learned his name later) says, ‘What can I do? I have my cell phone, do you want to call your vet and let him know you’re going to come over? Do you need any help? There is blood on you. Do you need to go to the emergency room?’”

She didn’t think it was her blood; she felt sure it was Joey’s. So she told Robbins, “‘I just want to get Joey home. My husband’s at home.’ So, Davis escorted us, because he saw I wasn’t walking so good, and just to keep an eye out to make sure the pit wasn’t going to come back. Then we got to our house and I thanked him, and my husband and I rushed Joey off to the vet.”

Joey had a gash on his leg, punctures in his neck, a gash over his eye, and a bloodied ear. The vet treated him for his wounds and he is now nearly fully recovered. As the fight was going on, Muccia feared that “this was going to be tragic somehow,” but with Robbins’ help, it turned out well.

Muccia called the Helix admin office, spoke to Customer Service Supervisor Annie Magill, found out who the “man in the white truck” was, and wrote a letter of thanks. “I figured that no one would know unless I wrote a letter. Davis is a hero!”

Robbins, on the other hand, was very modest about his involvement in the incident. He doesn’t consider himself a hero.

“I just couldn’t believe no one was stopping! You can’t pass up someone who is yelling for help. What do you do, just walk by? Nah, that’s just not me. It’s just something you would normally do. It’s just not that big of a deal. I bet everyone here (Helix) would try to do something. They wouldn’t just walk by.”

	Joey

Robbins was out reading his normal route.

“I see that lady (Muccia) and her dog (Joey the Great Dane) every time I am out on that route. I was moving my truck because it was between two spots that I stop. I saw another woman and her two dogs running. I thought that was kind of strange. So, as I pulled up I saw (Muccia) and her dog being attacked by the pit bull. I stopped the truck, hopped out, and ran over there. I took my meter stick and I was hitting the pit bull, trying to break them up. She (Muccia) had blood on her. Both dogs were just going at it. Joey is a big dog, and then you have the pit bull. They were just locked up. She was crying and yelling and screaming for help, and no one was stopping. When we finally got them loose, the pit bull took off up the road.

“Her dog was bleeding and limping. I walked them up to the house. You could tell that she was scared, really scared. She’d been holding on to her dog and trying to beat the other dog. You’ve got two big dogs fighting… that’s a scary thing. You don’t know if that dog is going to let loose and bite you.”

However, that thought did not keep Robbins from persisting. He said he didn’t really think much about the danger until after it was over.

Robbins grew up on a farm and has a large dog himself. So, he is used to being around big animals. He didn’t think about using the pepper spray that the readers carry, but now ponders, “What if I’d sprayed the wrong dog? It could have given the pit bull the upper hand.”

He spoke to the sheriff and the animal control officer later, but there seems to be little they can do unless they witness the attack.

Asked if the incident changed the way he thinks about dogs, he responded, “Yes, now I carry dog biscuits in the truck!”