6-year-old Joey Walsh was getting ready to take a canoe trip with his dad when a large gator attacked him.

As Walsh's dad was getting the gear ready for the trip, the boy walked toward the water in order to get a closer look. Suddenly a large gator jumped up and attacked the boy, grabbing his arm and attempting to drag him into the water.

The 6-year-old's father and another man ran to try and free Joey from the attacking gator. Joey tried to free his arm but the predator's grip was too tight. The father and the other man did not want to try and pull Joey out of the gator's mouth, fearing the child's arm would come off.

"So I ran in the water and it was about waist deep," Joey's dad told local TV news. "I had my son like this here (he demonstrated how he held the boy) because I didn't want to play tug-o-war with the alligator and get his arm ripped out. So as I'm doing that I'm punching the alligator on the top of the head as hard as I could."

While the father was hitting the gator that attacked his 6-year-old boy on the head, the other man began to punch and kick the gator in the stomach. Eventually the gator let go of the boys arm and Joey walked away with minor cuts and bruises. Luckily he didn't require surgery.

"Why my son has an arm today, why he doesn't have puncture marks it's a miracle," his mother said to the news reporter.

Joey says he knows how lucky he was to escape the gator attack. In the news video from AOL, the 6-year-old boy was seen playing on his big wheel and enjoying the sunny Florida day, thankful to have survived the gator attack.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, female alligators usually grow to about 9-feet while males are much larger and heavier.

Myfwc.com says the Florida state record for the largest alligator was 14-feet long and weighed over 1,043 lbs. the jaws of an alligator are reportedly strong enough to lift a small car.