US: Florida woman wrestles alligator to save her pet dog

A Florida woman wrestled a 7.5-foot alligator that dragged her beloved pet dog Hope into a pond.

Brave Lori Beiswenger, who owns Point O' Woods Golf Course in Inverness, jumped into the water and grabbed the gator's tail until it let go.

"I said, God, no this can't be happening and it was the scariest feeling in the world," she told WTSP-TV.

"I'm just grabbing it and that was right there. I just kept pulling in saying you're not getting her, you're not going out there because I knew what he had in mind," she said, adding that she tugged on the alligator's tail three times before it let go.

"After that she was just floating all you could see was the top of her nose and we didn't know where the gator was," said Beiswenger.

Gold course volunteer Jody Daniels helped pull Hope back to shore, with the gator in hot pursuit.

"When he pulled her out she started running up the bank and the gator did, too," said Beiswenger.

Hope suffered a severed artery, but is recuperating well following three hours of surgery.

"It's a miracle. It's really a miracle that she survived it," Beiswenger told the TV station.

Hope has certainly been a lucky pooch - having survived several brushes with death. She was adopted by Beiswenger just before she was due to be put down and was later hit by a car.

The alligator wasn't as lucky - it was killed and sold to a local restaurant for meat.

Despite acknowledging the danger she was in, Beiswenger says she'd do anything for Hope.

"I wasn't thinking. It was the dumbest bravest thing I ever dove," said Beiswenger. "I love this dog there was nothing, I wasn't going to lose her."