Richard and Linda Knowles say Katie Bergstrom’s Labrador retriever attacked and severely wounded their dog, Taffy, last summer.

A month later, Auburn Police declared “Sue” a potentially dangerous dog. That means if she is to keep her dog, Bergstrom must fulfill a number of requirements outlined in City ordinance, including registration of her’s as a potentially dangerous dog and the construction of adequate containment.

Bergstrom has since appealed the designation, placing Sue’s fate in the hands of the City’s Hearing Examiner. Hearing Examiner Phil Olbrechts heard Bergstrom’s appeal Wednesday in the Council Chambers at Auburn City Hall.

Here, according to the police account, is what happened.

On Aug. 23, Richard and Linda Knowles and their dog were returning along R Street Southeast from a morning stroll through Auburn’s Game Farm Park.

At 10:50 a.m., according to police, the couple were on a sidewalk, passing a back yard enclosed by a wooden fence at 1515 33rd St. SE, when a male Labrador retriever mix stuck its head through the fence, clamped its teeth around Taffy’s lower jaw and began to drag the terrified dog through.

Taffy’s owners freed their bleeding dog and sped her to the Sumner Veterinary Hospital, where a veterinarian sutured the puncture wounds in her jaw.

According to police, Bergstrom later told Animal Control Officer George Winner that she had been at home during the presumably noisy attack but hadn’t heard a thing. Moreover, she said, her dog, could not have been the attacker: the hole in the fence at that spot was too small for her dog to have poked his head through.

Investigating, Winner found a hole in the fence and what appeared to be blood droplets on the sidewalk at the site of the alleged attack. He later showed the Knowles a picture of the lab mix, and they identified her as the dog that had attacked their dog.

The Knowles also told Police that they previous to this incident, they had had issues walking past the fence when Sue and Bergstrom’s second dog, a shepherd, were inside. The couple told police they typically avoided walking there whenever they heard barking. That day, they said, there was no barking to alert them to the presence of any dogs in the yard.

On Sept. 23, Winner issued Bergstrom a notice of intent to declare Sue a potentially dangerous dog, and she asked for a preliminary hearing. Following that hearing, Assistant Police Chief William Pierson made the declaration official. Bergstrom then appealed the decision to the City’s Hearing Examiner.