A woman from Florida bravely risked her life to rescue her cherished dog, Kona, after a 6-and-a-half-foot alligator clamped its jaws around the dog’s head during an evening stroll.

“All of a sudden, I noticed its eyes. I saw it revolving, so I immediately began tugging her away, ‘Kona, let’s go,’ but she’s quite a strong dog,” Kim Spencer recounted to FOX 13 while sitting on her couch with Kona beside her.

In a split second, the alligator had gotten Kona’s whole head in its mouth. 

“They were face to face, and suddenly it lunged at her, capturing her entire head in its mouth,” Spencer described.

Kona was injured in the attack but it healing.  (FOX 13)

“We just got lucky because it ran. Just as quickly as it ran after us it went right back in the water and I got up and we were out of there,” she said. 

Both Spencer and Kona needed stitches after the incident, and while Spencer’s hands are still bandaged and Kona is sporting a cone over her head, they’re otherwise OK. 

“We’re empty nesters, she’s my baby, so I wasn’t ready to take on that mindset that she’s an animal versus a human,” Spencer told the station. 

Spencer warned others that the same thing could “easily” happen to someone else.

Specncer calls Kona her “baby.”  (FOX 13)

“You might not be that lucky to be able to get your child or your pet. Many people say they’re more afraid of us than we are of them. Clearly not the case.”

While serious injuries caused by alligators in Florida is rare the “potential for conflict always exists,” according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, adding that human population growth in waterfront areas “can result in more frequent alligator-human interactions, and a greater potential for conflict.”

The commission advises never feeding alligators, keeping your distance and keeping pets on a leash and away from the water.