A pleasant evening walking the dog turned into a painful and terrifying experience for an Omaha woman. She suffered severe injuries saving her pet from an attacking pit bull.

Lulu isn’t one to pick a fight.

“Her hashtag on Instagram is Lulu the lover,” said her owner, Crystal Guerrero.

But passing by a house near 5th and William streets in Omaha's Little Italy neighborhood, a pit bull charged — possibly through an open gate — and Lulu got hurt trying to fend off the other dog.

“She’s pretty protective of me so she did try, but I scooped her up, and that’s when I got the first bite on my leg,” Guerrero said.

The wound required 15 stitches and the raging pit bull kept attacking. Guerrero said, “I saw the dog bite other people and so I tried to get up and run away and the dog came back again and bit me in my upper thigh.”

The

cited Teresa Vargas for no proof of rabies vaccination, restraint violation, dangerous animal a pit bull without a muzzle and no proof of insurance required for a pit bull.

Though the woman resident of the home was cited, a man who lives there said the dog belongs to his brother visiting in Mexico.

“It wasn’t our fault," he said. "It was my brother’s girlfriend’s fault because she doesn’t have a right to come here and open the door and let the dogs out.”

But Guerrero has a $1,000 vet bill for Lulu and expects thousands more in medical bills for herself.

“I know that we could file a claim against that policy if she had one. I have no idea how you find out. All I’ve got is a name,” said her mother, Cindy Elysea.

Six On Your Side questioned the man where the pit bull came from: “Do you have insurance to help out the lady who got bit?”

The man replied: ”Yeah we do, but it’s personal so I can’t say anything about it right now.”

Guerrero has her own medical coverage, but with a deductible, so she may hire an attorney.

The mother of the pit bull owner is considered responsible for the dog at the time of the attack; she goes to court in mid-December.

The Humane Society will hold the dog until a judge decides on the criminal charges and possibly the fate of the pit bull.