LEWISTON – A day after a Great Dane terrorized a family and held police in a standoff, the Hawthorne Place neighborhood still had the jitters.

Frazier, the 185-pound dog was euthanized three hours after mauling a cat and biting its owner at 4 Hawthorne Place. But neighbors on Wednesday still spoke in frightened tones about what might have happened.

“What if it had been a kid?” said Tina Bouchard, who lives across from the house where Frazier ran amok late Tuesday. “There are little kids everywhere around here. Little kids who could stand under the belly of that dog.”

Frazier had begun acting aggressively in the past month, according to its owner, Rini Barlow. Neighbors said the attack Tuesday night was not the first time the dog has run wild.

Bouchard recalls seeing the Great Dane burst into a closed foyer at a neighboring home and attack a tiny dog named Rudy. At the time, Rudy’s owner was talking to Rini Barlow at the side of the road.

“This Great Dane blows by them, blows into the foyer, takes Rudy into its mouth and starts thrashing,” Bouchard said.

Rudy, a small mix about the size of an adult cat, was rushed to the vets for treatment but survived the attack.

“He came out of it just great,” said Mark Anthoine, Rudy’s owner. “He’s a small dog, but he doesn’t back down from anything, even this 185-pound dog.”

Anthoine and his wife, Deb, said they do not have any animosity toward the Barlows. Rini Barlow, who was walking Frazier at the time of that attack, went out of her way to make sure Rudy was OK after the attack, according to Mark Anthoine.

“She really did a wonderful job,” he said. “She was very compassionate. She was as concerned as we were.”

It remained unclear why Frazier turned mean Tuesday night. Rini Barlow said the dog was getting old and may have been sick. Strout and another animal expert suggested the Great Dane may have had a brain tumor.

“That’s the mostly likely suspicion,” said Dr. Eric Boumann, of the Animal Emergency Clinic in Lewiston. He said brain tumors in older dogs are often the cause of sudden changes in behavior.

Whatever the cause, the idea of a 185-pound dog turning mean was a frightening one for the neighbors.

“Whether it was a nice dog or an aggressive one, it was just very intimidating to look at,” Anthoine said.

Frazier once weighed 205 pounds but was recently put on a diet to slim down to 185, Rini Barlow said. However, the dog was also tall, a fact that only added to its daunting appearance.

“I stand 5 feet 8 or so,” Bouchard said. “And that dog came up to my chest.”

As police and animal control officials discussed ways to subdue Frazier on Tuesday night, the size of the dog was an obvious factor.

“With a smaller dog, we wouldn’t have hesitated to try and corner it,” said Animal Control Officer Wendell Strout. “But with a dog as big as this one, you’ll get to a point of no return where you won’t be able to get away.”

The 10-year-old Great Dane was shot with an extra dose of tranquilizer at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, roughly two hours after it bit 26-year-old Jan Barlow, Rini’s husband, on the arm.

Frazier also killed a family cat, chased the Barlows into another room and then baffled police, who did not know how to approach the animal.

“He was kind of a kamikaze dog,” said Strout. “But the tranquilizer took the edge off him. It took the fight out of him. It was a special concoction the veterinarian made for me.”

Strout asked for a little more than the standard muscle relaxant for the tranquilizer that eventually ended Frazier’s last stand. The dog’s size and the fact that its owner wanted the animal put down led to that decision, Strout said.

Once the dog was sedated, it was placed into the back of a truck. It was driven to the Emergency Animal Clinic on Strawberry Avenue, where another shot was administered. Moments later, the dog was dead.

“We did it right in the back of the truck,” Strout said. “It was humane for him and humane for us because we didn’t get hurt.”

Most of the dog was cremated but part of the animal was sent to a lab for a rabies test. Rini Barlow said Frazier had recently been given rabies and other shots.

Jan Barlow was released from St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday after he was treated for a cut to his arm. His wife kept her dead cat, a Siamese named Murphy, with plans to bury it.

According to Bouchard, the wrath of Frazier on Tuesday night was the talk of the neighborhood for most of Wednesday. By evening, most who live in the areas of Hawthorne Place and Buttonwood Lane had learned that the Great Dane had been euthanized.

“The whole neighborhood has been up in arms about it,” Bouchard said. “I’m glad it’s been put down, to tell you the truth.”