OCALA, Fla. -- Two Marion County dog owners are preparing to go to court to save their pets' lives.

Marion County and city of Ocala got tough on aggressive dogs a few years ago when an elderly woman was killed by a pack of pit bulls. The owner of those dogs was even sent to prison. But some say the city is now going too far.

Nearly everywhere Vicki Gard goes, she carries a color poster of Jake.

"I haven't seen him in several months, because it kills me and it upsets him. He doesn't understand why he is being locked up. I mean, he's a dog," Gard said.

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Jake is a 4-year-old pit bull. When he was just five months, he killed a neighbor's cat and, because he managed to escape his yard three times over the last three years, the Ocala Code Enforcement Board ordered he be euthanized.

"And it's like a last resort, because he can't get along with people, because he's so vicious. That is not the case here," Gard said.

Gard said Jake has never bitten a person or another animal since the cat incident, but once county code enforcers labeled him a dangerous dog, his fate was all but sealed.

A boxer named Max is in the same situation, declared dangerous after attacking a neighbor's pet. When he did it a second time, the code enforcement board ruled he be put down.

"They're trying to punish dogs for being dogs," said Gard's attorney James Moody. "Both these cases are similar, in that these dogs never attacked any person. Yet, the board is adamant about putting them to sleep. To me, that doesn't make sense."

Moody is challenging the city of Ocala and its dangerous dog ordinance in court. Jake and Max's lives will now depend on the ruling of a circuit judge.

Meanwhile, Gard said she has suffered through seven sleepless months. That's how long Jake has been in the pound.

"When I walk away, I can hear him howling. He howls. And it just kills me. So, I can't go see him. It's just best that I don't go see him," she said.

Ocala's city manager did not return calls from Eyewitness News on Thursday, but much of the wording from the city's dangerous dog ordinance is lifted right from Florida state statute.