Lori Beiswenger owns the Point O’ Woods Golf Course in Inverness, Florida.

She was on the property with her nine-year-old dog Hope earlier this week, when a seven-and-a-half foot alligator attacked it, and dragged it into a pond. So Lori jumped in too — up to her neck.

She grabbed the gator by the tail, kept it from getting away, then yanked on it three times until the gator let go. At that point Hope was just floating in the water, and all they could see was the top of her nose. The gator had disappeared.

So a volunteer used a shovel to help pull Hope’s body back to the bank. Then she was able to get up and run out of the pond, but the gator tried too.

Hope had to have three hours of surgery, and got some stitches for a severed artery and other injuries. The gator was trapped and killed, and its meat was sold off.

Lori’s fine, but she’s calling it: “The dumbest bravest thing I ever done. I just kept pulling and saying, ‘You’re not getting this, you’re not going out there,’ because I knew what he had in mind.”‘

It’s actually the third time she’s rescued Hope. The first was when he was scheduled to be put down at a local dog shelter, and the second was when he survived being run over by a car.