Inverness man came to woman's rescue

As he walked his regular laps around the Palatine outdoor track, Jim Kane saw someone who obviously needed help.

From about 75 feet away, he could make out that there was a woman screaming in the presence of two dogs.

"I heard her, and it was pretty scary," Kane said. "She was begging for someone to help her, and I definitely knew she was in trouble."

At first, he thought the woman was walking a dog that was under attack from another animal.

But approaching the scene, Kane realized the 65-year-old woman was being bitten by two dogs, and he says it was vicious. As he walked toward her to help, the dogs released her and ran across the street.

"I walked up to her right away and she was holding both of her shoulders," recalls Kane. "I thought she was going to fall down."

He sat the woman down to wait for the ambulance. He kept talking to her, trying to assure her everything would be all right.

As they waited, he saw the dogs were still across the street "circling and definitely agitated."

"I did get pretty scared myself, but they ended up settling down and walked down the block," he said.

Kane, 61, lives in Inverness. He regularly walks at the Palatine track for exercise and says he's not out to get any public attention.

His son Marc Kane says his dad really stepped up that day.

"What he did was pretty courageous," Marc Kane said.

Linda Cassidy of Palatine, the owner of the two Rottweilers -- Edward, a 100-pound male, and Georgia-Rose, a 90-pound female --has been ticketed and fined for the attack and will only get one of the dogs back after a village ruling.

A man drove by shortly after and Kane told him to call 911. Within five minutes, police were on the scene and looking for the animals.

What worried Kane in particular, he says, was about 15 minutes before, three young girls had crossed at the exact same intersection the attack took place, near East Colfax and North Schiller streets.

"If those girls would have been the ones attacked," he said, "we would have had a big problem in Palatine."