Editor's Note: Updates earlier story throughout to add information from Brevard County Sheriff's Office

Thursday began routine at Laurie Lewellen-Lutter's home, with her daughter letting their two Bullypit dogs out in the backyard first thing in the morning.

Just half an hour later, Lewellen-Lutter dogs were bleeding from bullet wounds.

She wants to know how it happened.

"Somehow the dogs got out of the backyard," the 45-year-old Port St. John resident and grandmother said. "I drove around to look for them. I stopped and saw a bunch of cop cars and my dogs were running to me."

According to a statement from Brevard County Sheriff's Office posted online, the deputies responded to the neighborhood in reference to a report of two dogs running loose after they had killed a cat. The report said a deputy observed the dogs mauling another cat.

"Each dog had part of the cat in their mouths and they were violently shaking it," the report said. "The deputy attempted to separate the dogs by blowing his horn and eventually by striking one of the dogs. Each time the dog was struck, it would briefly disengage, turn its attention toward the deputy, then return to attacking the cat. A second deputy used his air horn in an attempt to scare the dogs, however, none of the tactics worked as the dogs continued to aggressively attack the cat."

According to the sheriff's office, the deputy discharged one round from his firearm, striking both dogs. A search of the area found one dead cat, the sheriff's office report said. The cat that was attacked in front of the deputies ran off into a wooded area and has not been located, the report said.

"I opened my car door and the dogs jumped on me and they're gushing blood," Lewellen-Lutter said. "I can't even understand this."

The dogs are a father-and-son tandem. Lewellen-Lutter has had Leo for two years. She adopted Leo's offspring, Titan, as a puppy in February.

The dogs each are a mix of an American Bulldog and an American Pit Bull Terrier, known as Bullypit.

The bullets struck Leo in the hind leg and Titan in his neck, Lewellen-Lutter said.

Veterinarians at Parkway Animal Hospital in Port St. John operated on the dogs and will see them for a follow-up Monday, she said.

The Sheriff's Office did not respond to a request for comment about this case.

“While Sheriff Wayne Ivey and the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office are always willing to answer questions for our many credible news source partners, we do not under any circumstances respond to questions from the Florida Today as we do not consider them to be a credible news source," Ivey wrote in a statement to FLORIDA TODAY. "Our agency is however more than willing to fulfill any public record requests from the Florida Today that is in compliance with Florida State Statute 119."

A request for public records involving this case had not been filled Friday afternoon.

According to the sheriff's office report, Animal Services is investigating the incident in reference to ordinance violations. The report said the investigation has found this was not the first time the dogs were observed running loose and menacing other animals.

Lewellen-Lutter said she and her daughter woke up just after 7:40 a.m. The routine, she said, is the dogs are let out into the fenced-in backyard to each answer calls to Mother Nature.

When she was preparing to leave to take her 14-year-old daughter to school, they saw the dogs were not in the backyard of their Betty Avenue home, west of Interstate 95 and south of Space Coast High School. The two left immediately to search for the dogs.

They later discovered a hole the dogs had dug under the fence line leading to a neighbor's property.

Lewellen-Lutter said when she saw the deputies, they told her

the dogs' behavior was a concern because children would be out at school bus stops at the time. She also said the deputies told her the dogs had been acting aggressive.

Lewellen-Lutter described her dogs as docile and timid.

"They're afraid of their own shadows," she said. "They don't bark and they don't jump on people when they walk in the house. I adopted Titan because I wanted another dog just like Leo."

Lewellen-Lutter started a fundraiser on Facebook to get help paying for the dogs' medical bills. Thursday's surgeries cost $900.

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Stancil is a breaking news reporter for Florida Today and TCPalm. Contact him at 321-987-7179 or lamaur.stancil@tcpalm.com. Twitter: @TCPalmLStancil