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74-year-old Florida woman fights off alligator, gets bitten to save dog in Boca Raton
A Florida woman and her dog were attacked by an alligator during their evening stroll. According to the Palm Beach Post, 74-year-old Suzan Marciano was walking her golden retriever mix, Nalu, near a lake at Burt Aaronson Park west of Boca Raton when their evening turned for the worst.
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BOCA RATON, Fla. – For dog owners, evening walks before the sun sets are a typical part of their everyday routine, especially for those living in Florida. However, for one Florida woman, this routine has completely changed after a traumatic incident — her dog was attacked by an alligator during their evening stroll, and so was she.
According to the Palm Beach Post, 74-year-old Suzan Marciano was walking her golden retriever mix, Nalu, near a lake at Burt Aaronson Park west of Boca Raton on Aug. 24 when their night turned for the worst.
At around 6:30 p.m., she took the golden retriever mix off of its leash, which is when the dog enthusiastically ran chest-deep into a nearby body of water. The duo then used a stick to play fetch in the lake.
Moments later, Marciano saw a horrific sight — a dark shadow that suddenly had two eyes facing towards her. It was an over six-foot-long alligator.
“My heart dropped,” she told the Palm Beach Post.
In an instant, the alligator gripped Nalu in its massive jaws. That’s when she took immediate action.
“I wasn’t thinking,” Marciano told the news outlet. “I did the only thing I could do. I came down on the alligator with all my weight.”
When the alligator released her dog, she figured she must have spooked it, but she was wrong. Suddenly, the alligator turned and sunk its giant teeth into her hand.
“It was all one big blur,” she told the Post. “I was in such shock. I didn’t feel any pain.”
After the attack of both her hand and of her dog, she didn’t know what steps to take next due to her state of shock. However, thanks to a friend who advised her to go to the hospital, she took action.
She was taken to a local urgent care center where she received five stitches after her hand was soaked in a tub of iodine.
Once she returned home, she took Nalu to an emergency pet hospital.