Sharri Khani sits on a park bench close to Toronto City Hall where she works and swipes through photos of her beloved dog on her iPhone.
They are memories she holds dear now that Ninja, her 20-pound Pekingese, is no longer with her.
Ninja died just over a week ago, viciously attacked in front of Khani, just steps from her home.
“I heard barking. I looked at the house on my left and saw the Husky that was behind the window trying to get out from the screen,” she recalled.
“I saw his paws come out of the screen window, my immediate reaction was to grab Ninja and run.”
But it was too late.
Through tears, Khani said, “He dug his teeth into Ninja and started shaking him, I started screaming … he came charging at me, started pushing me back and scraping my arm and my thighs.”
Khani can’t remember how many times the neighbour’s Husky grabbed her dog, but she said it happened many times.
“He grabbed him again and started shaking him like a rag doll,” she said.
Neighbours began rushing into the street and Khani said they grabbed their phones and started calling 911.
But that is when she began to realize help was not coming.
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“They couldn’t even get through to make them understand what had happened … they were placed on hold … assistance is supposed to be there, so if we can’t call 911, who do we call?” she said.
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While Ninja lay dying, her neighbours grew worried for other pets and people in the area.
“Others were calling the local division where the front clerk was redirecting it back to 911 so it was a vicious cycle where they couldn’t explain this dog was at large because the owners weren’t home,” Khani said.
When finally a call made its way to the acting Staff Sergeant in 33 Division where she lives, Khani said she was told that if she had any complaint, she should take it up with the mayor, in regards to the response time police have.
Shocked, she hung up the phone.
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Friends drove her and Ninja to the vet clinic where the dog died.
Beyond the grief of losing him, Khani is now dealing with the anger and frustration of not being able to access help during the emergency that claimed Ninja’s life.
In a video she posted to social media, Khani can be heard through tears and gasps stating, “This is not a political matter, my entire neighbourhood and community were requesting assistance, that’s all.”
Toronto police said one call for a dog-on-dog attack was received and both dogs were back under the control of their owners, so the call was referred to Animal Services.
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As for the comments by the 33 Division Acting Staff Sergeant referring Khani to the mayor, a spokesperson for the Toronto Police Service noted that it’s being looked at “internally.”
“When a community or a neighbourhood or a person or a citizen needs assistance, who do we call?” said Khani, who has decided not to reveal to her young daughters the true cause of Ninja’s death.
She, herself, is still trying to come to terms with the horror of it all.
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