Ugh—that must have been so traumatic!
And I hope you and your doggy were okay.
I have Cavaliers, wonderful dogs and very friendly, docile. As such they seem to attract aggressive dogs, so we’re very careful with them around other dogs. I have at least five times defended them against other dogs who either got off lead or were mishandled, including this Pit attack and two German Shepherds, one off lead the other that dragged its owner towards me.
The GS were easy to deflect, just kicked them in the head. I’ve dealt w/ that breed before, having grown up w/ one in the house behind us that I learned to dominate, as GS respect authority. Pits, thought, no way, and I’ve never lived in areas w/ people who own them... (yes, you FR pit apologizers, that’s you). It just grabbed my boy by the head and started that twisting thing they do, lifting my 22lb Cav off the ground.
It happened too fast to avoid but I managed to figure out quickly enough that there was no way it was going to release, so I went street-fighter on it and gouged its eyes — a very unhappy Pitty.
My dog suffered just a single puncture wound, thankfully, but was very shook up. My vet says my poor grooming saved him — his ears are like Rastafarians, as we don’t obsessively groom them like most Cav owners.