A MUCH-loved family pet who narrowly escaped death after being savagely mauled outside her East Morton home is slowly recovering.

Boggie, a six-year-old Jack Russell, was attacked by a pair of lurcher type dogs while she was in her home's front garden in Waterside Fold on March 30.

The invading dogs ran into the garden by crossing a small stream which separates the garden from a nearby field.

Boggie was hurled into the stream and savaged, sustaining dozens of bites and losing a lot of blood.

The onslaught only stopped when a man who said he had been walking nearby appeared and called the lurchers off.

Boggie was rushed to the vets, where she remained until last Saturday (April 4) when her owners – Caroline and Michael Fallis-Taylor were able to bring her home.

The couple, who have two young children, are appealing for the owner of the lurchers to take responsibility for what happened and make sure it never occurs again.

Mr Fallis-Taylor, 41, said: "Boggie is at home now and is convalescing. She's still having treatment and she's out of immediate danger but it'll be at least another six to eight weeks before she is fully recovered.

"Her wounds still need flushing out and she's on painkillers and antibiotics. We need to clean her wounds out every hour, so it's been a busy Easter.

"She's not very active and she's mainly lying there feeling sorry for herself.

"We know she is traumatised and terrified by what happened, because whenever we take her back to the vets she shakes like a leaf when there are other dogs around."

Mr Fallis-Taylor said local people had been very supportive and sympathetic since the story about Boggie's experience was published in the Keighley News last week.

"They have been quite shocked about it, and we've heard from a couple of people who've think they've seen these dogs in the area before," he said.

He added he accepted that the dogs who attacked Boggie needed exercise off the lead, adding that he would not want them to be put down.

But he stressed that the ordeal could have been prevented if the dogs had been muzzled.

"I wouldn't want them taken off the owner, because he probably loves his dogs as much as we love ours," he said.

"But I'd like him to take responsibility, say he understands what his dogs have done and that he'll learn from it."