Baby Simon Pegram narrowly escaped being blinded when one of his family's pet dogs bit right through his eyelid and punctured his cheek.

Eight-month-old Simon, of Elms Road, Cassington, was rushed to hospital by paramedics with his face covered in blood.

His shocked mother Julie was later told by surgeons at Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary Eye Hospital his sight was safe.

The attack happened yesterday evening when Simon was crawling on the living room floor. Titch, a two-year-old Jack Russell, suddenly jumped on him, snapped and bit his face.

Julie said: "Little Simon was crawling on the floor and all of a sudden Titch just lunged at him. He had his teeth in his eye and cheek and there was blood everywhere. "Simon started crying and I shouted to my husband to phone 999. I was panicking and didn't know what to do. Thank God I was there or it could have been much worse."

The family are full of praise for the paramedics and doctors who looked after Simon.

She added: "They were wonderful, although at one time in the ambulance I thought Simon had died because the shock made him close his eye and go very still.

"When we got to the hospital, surgeons looked very closely at his eyes and said that very fortunately he would keep his sight. Simon is very lucky, it would have been so much worse."

Titch is one of three dogs owned by the family. Julie and her husband Richard bought them as companions because they originally thought they were unable to have another child after their daughter Kayleigh, now aged nine, was born.

They are considering what to do with the three pets.

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