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KENOSHA — The family of a 4-year-old boy who was attacked by a pit bull hopes the dog’s owners will come forward to take responsibility and to prove the dog has been vaccinated for rabies.

Paul Kiely said a couple he described as acquaintances stopped by his family’s Kenosha home Monday, bringing their two dogs. He said the owners tied the leash of one of the dogs to the front porch.

Kiely said the couple had been there for about 30 minutes when his son, 4-year-old Colin, walked past the dog on his way to the porch. “Colin went to walk by him; he reached out to pet him; and this dog just pounced on him, lunged on him and bit him in the face,” Kiely said.

Kiely said he grabbed his son away from the dog. “I just put him over my shoulder — we’re a block and a half from the hospital so I just ran with him,” he said.

Colin was stabilized at the local ER, then taken by a Flight for Life ambulance to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, where he underwent a 2½ hour surgery to repair the injuries to his face, spending two days in the hospital. Part of Colin’s lip is gone, and he will need additional plastic surgery to repair the damage. “(The surgeon) said, ‘I stitched back everything I could, I can’t stitch back what’s missing,’” Kiely said.