"It hurt me to my soul," says Willie Carr as he describes the deep wounds his 11-year-old son, Maleik, endured in a pit bull attack on Monday morning. Maleik sustained the injuries when he rushed to save his sister from a dog attack in Dublin, Georgia.
Maleik and his 5-year-old sister, Jalia, started Monday as they do most other school days -- with a walk through their backyard to the school bus. But this morning was different.
According to WMAZ, the chain link fence that typically keeps a safe distance between them and their neighbor's two unleashed pit bulls was marked by a massive hole. And as the two walked past, both dogs slipped through and proceeded to attack Jalia.
"So I ran over there and started kicking [the dogs] away from her," Maleik told CNN, offering the camera a view of his legs, covered in stitches and puncture wounds, as proof. Maleik told his little sister to run to safety.
While the dogs bit into his legs, Maleik quickly picked Jalia's toy chair and used it to fend off the violent canines. He then hopped over another fence to safety (this one intact), where his older sister picked him up and hustled him to the hospital.
Maleik's legs took on the brunt of the dog's anger with a total of 23 bites. His hands also suffered four bites. He is now recovering after emergency surgery, his father, Willie, wrote on Facebook.
Click through the slideshow below to read even more incredibly inspiring stories of heroism.
