A resident of Trail, B.C. escaped a potentially deadly cougar attack with minor injuries after her beloved dog ‘Vicious’ chased off the wild cat.
Angie Prime, 35, was in her living room Saturday evening with her two small puppies and 11-year-old Border collie, when a cougar snuck into her home through an open screen door.
“I happened to catch something in the corner of my eye,” Prime told CTV British Columbia.
Prime recalled the terrifying moment she came face to face with the wild cat.
“I looked over and locked eyes with the cougar. We looked at each other and it took a couple steps and jumped at me and I brought my leg up and put my arms up and screamed,” she said.
That’s when Vicious leapt into action to protect her and chased the cougar out of the house.
“Thankfully my dog is fast and I still have her. If I didn't have her we wouldn't be having this conversation,” Prime said.
Thanks to her dog, Prime suffered only a few puncture marks on her legs left by the cougar’s claws.
Since the foiled attack, Prime has made sure to reward Vicious for her courage.
“Got her some extra toys and she got lots of extra treats,” she said.
Conservation officers located the cougar around 400 metres from Prime’s home on Monday.
Officers shot and killed the cat to prevent it from attacking another human. They say the emaciated cat was acting out of desperation.
“It was starving and it was desperate for food, and it does things that normally one wouldn't do,” Sgt. Rob Hawton said.
Prime thinks the cougar may have been after her puppies. However she hasn’t completely ruled out the notion that it may have been after her.
“I would just be a bigger morsel than they are,” said Prime, who weighs just 78 pounds.
Officials say attacks like this one are fairly rare. They say residents in rural areas should always keep their doors shut.
With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Jon Woodward
