GRANGER, Wash. — In her four years as the city’s dog catcher, Linda Bowen never got bitten.

But Thursday morning — roughly three months after her position was cut due to a lack of funds — she found herself confronted by two angry pit bull mixes without her gear.

“I would have had my pepper spray, I would have had my catch-pole,” she said.

The confrontation ended with one dog getting shot by a police officer and Bowen and another woman being sent to the hospital with dog bites.

Bowen, who still works for the city of Granger, said she was inspecting sidewalks for cracks and holes about 6:55 a.m. when she noticed a screaming woman being attacked by the dogs near West A and West Second streets.

The woman, a visitor from Seattle, was walking in the neighborhood when the dogs pounced on her.

“They were just all around her and she was trying to get away from them,” Bowen said, adding that the dogs ran off after she began yelling at them.

After noticing her leg was bleeding, Bowen gave the woman her cell phone so she could call for help.

Bowen followed the dogs to see where they went. Then they turned on her.

“Next thing I knew, they were on me, started nipping at my leg,” she said. “Then I kicked one. It yelped and ran off.”

It was then that she noticed she was bit.

“I looked down and saw blood going down my leg,” Bowen said.

Minutes later, a public works employee found the dogs at their home in the 200 block of West First Street and told the owner they would be seized, said police Sgt. Bob Kampert.

One dog was caged, but the other knocked down the public works employee and nearly bit his face. Kampert, who also arrived at the house, said he shot and wounded the lunging animal.

“It shows the aggressive-ness of the dog,” he said.

Both dogs were taken into custody.

Bowen, who worked as the city’s animal control officer for nearly four years, questions whether the public works department has had adequate training to handle dangerous animals.

With the loss of the dog catcher position, animal control duties are now shared among six public works employees. Bowen now reads meters part time in public works and also works as an administrative assistant in the police department.

She and the Seattle woman were treated for bites to their legs at local hospitals. Bowen suffered a puncture wound to her calf and two cuts, while the other woman suffered a 2-inch gash about three-quarters of an inch deep, Kampert said.

The case remains under investigation, but Kampert said dog owners in such incidents are typically cited for allowing their dogs to roam free and attack.

Herald-Republic reporter Mark Morey contributed to this report.