This is one neighbor you want to have around in a sticky situation.
Last week, John Christensen came to the rescue after he witnessed a 7-year-old girl being attacked by a 100-pound bullmastiff.
"I remember my heart was racing and I could feel the adrenaline," said the computer programmer who just so happened to be working from home that day.
That's not necessarily a good thing for Christensen, who at 42, has a heart condition. His heroism could have killed him, but that's not what was on the good Samaritan's mind when he saw the little girl trapped in a large dog's jaws.
Christensen saw the dog biting the girl around her throat and dragging her from the street to the grassy area of a yard.
The little girl had been riding her scooter along Agua Avenue in Coral Gables when the large dog attacked her out of no where. Several neighbors said they had seen the dog before dragging it's owner around during walks.
Christensen first threw a ball at the dog to distract it. He tried punching the animal to get it to go away, but that only worked momentarily before it went back on the attack.
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Then, Christensen remembered he had a pocket knife he always has on him.
"My wife gives me a lot of grief for carrying it, but I always take it with me," said Christensen, giving props to his days as an Eagle Scout.
Christensen tried to slit the dog's throat, but the loose skin around it's neck made the knife slide through. The he stabbed the dog in the ribs repeatedly, which forced it to back off.
"I looked the dog in the eye and he looked back at me and he must have been saying to himself, ' This guy is just stupid,'" he said.
Then Christensen tied it to a tree and called 911. As the dog calmed down on the tree, the little girl was "bleeding very badly," Christensen said.
The dog bit her head and neck and ripped off her ear. She was rushed to Miami Children's Hospital and spent several days in the Intensive Care Unit.
If Christensen wasn't around, the dog may very well have killed the girl.
"I don't believe in chance," he said. "The fact that I was working from home that day and walking down there at that time, I'm just glad that God placed me there to help."
Christensen says the dog's owner was looking for his dog when he came across the scene of the attack.
Animal control quickly responded and took the dog into its custody. It was later euthanized. The young girl is expected to be okay.
"She's such a little angel," Christensen said. "God bless her."
