A Northern California woman is lucky to be alive after being attacked by a mountain lion during a stroll, crediting her heroine dog for coming to her defense. The canine battled the cat while the woman sought help.
Woman attacked by mountain lion, her hero dog comes to the rescue
A 24-year-old northern California woman credits her two 1/2-year-old Belgian Malinois with saving her life after a mountain line attacked her during an afternoon stroll.
Erin Wilson lives in rural Trinity County, about four hours northwest of Sacramento, and drove her pickup to the nearby Trinity River, White Bar Picnic Area area for a relaxing walk that soon turned into a life-and-death struggle, the Sacramento Bee reported.
As Wilson walked the trail, her dog Eva was off the leash, a few yards ahead of her. Her pickup was still within eyesight along Highway 299.
A mountain lion seemingly sprang out of nowhere and lunged for Wilson without warning. The big cat scratched through her jacket, tearing at her shoulder. The growling mountain lion appeared it was going to pounce on her. Wilson only weighs 115 pounds.
“I yelled ‘Eva!’ and she came running,” Wilson said. “And she hit that cat really hard.”
The young Belgian Malinois weighs about 55 pounds, and even though it was significantly outweighed by the cougar, the dog fought fiercely to defend its owner, CBS reported.
“They fought for a couple of seconds, and then I heard her start crying,” Wilson said. “That’s when the cat latched on to her skull.”
Wilson then began throwing rocks at the cougar, hitting it with anything she could find, including her fists. She jumped into the battle, trying to choke the cat with her arms and gouge its eyes.
Engaging with the cat only caused Wilson to receive further injuries, as the cougar tried to kick her off, scratching her with its back paws. But the cat had the dog’s head in its mouth and wouldn’t let go.
Wilson then ran to the truck, where she retrieved a tire iron and flagged down a passing motorist named Sharon Houston.
Houston told The Bee she grabbed a four-foot length of PVC pipe and pepper spray.
The two women then ran back to the mountain lion, which had now dragged the dog off the trail.
Houston sprayed the cougar with pepper spray and finally let go of the dog, then fled.
Dog in bad shape, woman had non-life-threatening injuries
The dog was heavily injured during the encounter with the mountain lion. The dog had seizures on the drive to the vet but stabilized overnight.
According to Wilson’s husband, Connor Kenny, the Belgian Malinois suffered two skull fractures, a punctured sinus cavity, and severe damage to her left eye.
The dog is in guarded condition, and Wilson says while the dog is “not out of the woods,” the vets are optimistic that the young dog will recover. The veterinarians are making sure there is no bleeding in her brain and that her cranial pressure is going down.
“My dog is my hero, and I owe her my life,” Erin Wilson wrote on a GoFundMe page she set up for her dog, Eva.
In an update to the GoFundMe page, Wilson said they’d received enough donations to pay for Eva’s treatment and would apply the rest of the money toward her medical bills and a few charities, including Malinois rescue, big cat rescue, and predator management groups, KRON4 reported.
The Wildlife department said its officers had collected samples from the wounds for DNA analysis, and authorities will attempt to trap the cougar.
