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Jamonie Robinson tells a dog story from his hospital bed that would frighten any early morning jogger. 

The 26-year-old rap singer is a patient in Alta Bates Medical Center recovering from the severe bites of two dogs whose owner commanded them to attack Robinson about 5 a.m. on May 8. 

The Oakland resident is undergoing kidney dialysis from the effects of muscle deterioration from the traumatic bites. 

“They bit me on my arms and legs,” the victim said. “They didn’t get my head because I fought them off. If they got to my neck I would be dead. The dog that had my arm almost ripped it off.” 

Robinson had just returned an automobile he borrowed from his cousin who lives near San Pablo Park at Park Avenue and Oregon Street, and he jogged around the corner to visit a friend’s home nearby. 

As he turned the corner he saw two pit bulls standing unleashed on the sidewalk with their owner or handler. He stopped in his tracks. 

Robinson thinks the dogs were about one and one half years old “They were in shape,” he said. “I know how a good dog looks. They were slim in the hips.” 

The handler of the black and brown dogs commanded them to attack Robinson, he said, in a language he couldn’t understand. 

The handler was a black male about 6 feet, 2 inches tall with a slim build, and about 30 years old. Robinson said he wore his hair was in dreadlocks to his shoulders, and a Jamaican Rastafarian-type hat. His beard was rough. 

Robinson, at 5 feet, 11 inches tall, has dropped in weight from about 220 pounds to 196 pounds since being admitted to the hospital. 

He thought the attack lasted at least 15 minutes with one of the pit bulls chewing on his left arm continuously while Robinson fought them off with his right arm. He tried to get the other dog in a headlock and he grabbed his silver chain but couldn’t manage to get back to his knees. 

“Everything was in shadows,” Robinson said. “I could almost see myself faint out.” He said the handler of the dogs did not seem to name them when he spoke. 

Eventually the handler called off his dogs, leaving Robinson alone and severely injured on the sidewalk. 

A passer-by came to his assistance, helping him walk back to his cousin’s home. Robinson said he hardly remembers the man, because “he was more a shadow than anything.” 

The editor of Berkeley’s Bark magazine, Claudia Kawczynska, said she has seen a man who may fit the description of the handler of the attack dogs, walking two leashed pit bulls in the meadow near the Berkeley Marina. 

She said pit bulls have gained a bad reputation because of the way people train them. 

“Obviously this man has trained them to attack people, but this isn’t a breed thing,” she said. 

They’re highly intelligent and trainable, she said, likening them to German shepherds, Dobermans and Rottweilers, other breeds that have been feared. 

Robinson’s cousin drove him to Alta Bates in the car Robinson had borrowed and returned earlier. 

His grandmother, Margie Bates, said the family wanted to thank the Good Samaritan, but can’t since he didn’t leave his name. 

She said the police officer in the emergency room may not have realized the life-threatening nature of the attack right after it occurred last week, so the family made it public this week. 

Berkeley Police Capt. Bobby Miller said Wednesday morning that the suspect has not yet been identified. The attack is being investigated by the homicide detail, under the direction of Sgt. Howard Nonoguchi, as a felony assault. 

Bates said her grandson’s left arm has been reconstructed, that the level of sugar in his blood skyrocketed and was then controlled by doctors, and that he has no medical insurance. 

“When he recovers he is going to pursue his music.” 

On Wednesday Robinson was feeling “real cool,” he said. “My career is just going to spark now. I got a whole bunch to tell. 

“When you’re almost upon the verge of death, you got a whole new outlook. I’m just going to push a little harder right now. I’m not discouraged.”