My Dog Was Attacked By Off Leash Dog

Hello all! My mom (over 65 but very active) was walking my dogs on their usual walk in the neighborhood. She was then attacked by a pitbull who was loose and off leash. Causing a $400 vet bill plus a cone $22 I had to purchase separately.

We had multiple neighbors and random people stop to try to help and I happened to drive by and was able to tackle the dog and hold it down so my mom could pull my dogs away. Calling 911 and then having many cars pull up and then animal control later.

Now this is not the first 911 call we have done for getting attacked while ours are on a leash and walking. Luckily the other times it has not required a vet visit but this one did. We took our dog to a regular vet rather than the emergency vet since we found one that could squeeze us in.

I can go more in depth if needed but: We called the cops. We have a 911 phone call and animal control report completed. We have the owner information and I reached out.

Now here is where I’m wondering where to turn. The owner tried to play it off as they are young and has a lot going on. But I am the same age as they are, and when I told them that everyone has something going on, owner just got kind of short with the answers. The owner explained that their dog was older and they had a lot of vet bills that they had to pay because my dog held their ground.
I asked for the vet bill and the cone to be covered which ends up being about $450 at most. The text messages are civil, and the owner is willing to pay but had to ask for help from their family. I also offered to do a very simple contract to do a payment plan in order to make it easier.

Fast-forward, now the family is having their Lawyer draw up a contract stating that they paid and it is rubbing me the wrong way. I would’ve been perfectly fine with a payment and a simple notarized statement stating that they paid. But I did not feel that a lawyer needed to be involved in this situation. Now that they have a lawyer involved, as I said, it is rubbing me the wrong way, and feel like they’re trying to make it harder than it needs to be. Most dog owners have had an incident before if they have had dogs their whole lives. And each case of the years that my mom and myself have had dogs if there was ever an incident, you paid it immediately. Nothing else to it.

At this point, I am considering small claims court. The owner did not want to pay for the cone (that was the first thing that rubbed me the wrong way, then immediately after getting the message stating that the lawyer was involved). I also had some business loss of income due to having to take my dog to the vet that day. I had to pay out-of-pocket expenses for the incident. I also am now considering getting a dog treadmill due to the unsafe environment around my neighborhood, especially because this one resulted in a vet visit.

Am I completely insane? Or should I count my losses and just have them pay for the vet bill and leave it be that has been accruing interest on a credit card due to having it put on a credit card?

Please and thank you to everyone who helps. Edit : located AZ