ROANOKE TIMES  
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, December 20, 1995           TAG: 9512200092
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: A-1  EDITION: METRO  
COLUMN: A look back at 1995: whatever happened to . . .
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
      Published correction ran on December 21, 1995.
         Clarification
         A photo caption in Wednesday's newspaper identified Carolyn Viar, the
      victim of a July 28 dog attack, as a newspaper carrrier for The Roanoke 
      Times. She was not employed by the newspaper. Her husband was a Roanoke 
      Times carrier, and she was helping him deliver papers the morning she 
      was attacked.

RECOVERY, PAIN FOLLOW VICIOUS ATTACK BY DOGS

AFTER BEING MAULED by Rottweilers last summer on her newspaper route, Carolyn Viar struggles through misery and nightmares to get on with life.

Carolyn and Ron Viar gave away their snow-white Chihuahua, Missy, a few months ago.

Nothing against Missy. It's just that Carolyn doesn't want to see any dogs, or even think about them anymore.

"That's it for the dogs," she says.

She used to love pets, but things haven't been the same for her since this past summer, when three Rottweilers attacked her as she and Ron were delivering newspapers in Southwest Roanoke.

They mauled her so badly that she has months and perhaps years of surgery and physical therapy ahead of her. And the nightmares are so bad that only prescription medicine eases her sleep.

Carolyn Viar is a quiet woman of 44. She doesn't want to complain about her injuries, but her husband can bear witness.

"It's a lot of pain and misery that she has to go through," Ron Viar says. "She suffers. I suffer right along with her."

Their lives changed July 28. They were delivering The Roanoke Times at about 4:30 that morning along Westport Avenue Southwest. Carolyn turned to see three Rottweilers - one full-grown dog and two puppies - coming at her. They pounced and slashed at her back, legs, arms and chest. They chewed the flesh on her right arm, she testified later, "like a pork chop."

She screamed for Ron, who was circling the block in their car. He jumped out and ran to her.

Ron Viar said one of the dogs was on her chest and seemed to be going for her throat. He punched it between the eyes and again in the jaw. He grabbed one of the smaller dogs and slammed it against a wall.

The dogs' owners, who lived one street over from Westport, said their pets had never hurt anyone before, and that they didn't know how they got loose.

But a judge ordered the Rottweilers be killed and fined the owners $200 for keeping vicious dogs in the city.

Carolyn Viar spent five days in the hospital and many more in a wheelchair.

She lost 60 percent of the muscle tissue in her right arm. The arm still hurts much of the time. Doctors plan to take muscle tissue from her back or elsewhere and graft it onto her weakened arm.

She can't walk very well, either. When she goes to the grocery store - always with Ron - she has to hold onto the cart for support.

She doesn't go out much anymore, even to visit her family. "They come over and see me," she says. "I don't want to get up and go like I used to - I used to love to go."

The couple's attorney, Dan Crandall, is negotiating with the dog owners' insurance company over compensation for the Viars' physical, emotional and financial losses.

"She's tried to be a real trouper through this," Crandall says. "She's a fighter. She's the type of person who says she's going to make it - she's going to do it."

"I'll fight," Carolyn Viar says simply. But, she notes, "I still have a long ways to go."

She can't work and Ron quit his job with the newspaper to stay home and take care of her. Money is tight.

"It's kinda hard to get by, especially this time of year," Ron Viar says.

He went out to his brother's land near Smith Mountain Lake to cut a Christmas tree; they couldn't afford to buy one. Ron and Carolyn, who live in Southeast Roanoke, are going to give gifts to a few family members, but decided they didn't have the money to give each other Christmas presents.

"We're just thanking God we've got each other," Ron says. "That's basically what we wanted. I'm just glad she's still here."

LENGTH: Medium:   87 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. Carolyn Viar is still in  
          ``a lot of pain and misery'' after being attacked by three  
          Rottweilers last July. The former Roanoke Times carrier faces  
          surgery to replace muscle in her right arm. color.
          MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
          NOTE: Below
KEYWORDS: YEAR 1995