A man confronted a cougar after it attacked his dog.
Will Gibb was at a Tim Horton’s in Whitecourt, Canada and decided to let his two huskies, Sasha and Mongo, out of his truck while he was talking with a friend.
All of a sudden Gibb heard his dog Sasha cry.
“I saw something wrapped around her, so I ran up and punched it in the side of the head,” Gibb told network CBC. “At that point I realized it was a cougar.”
Gibb chased after the cougar but returned to Sasha to make sure she was okay. The dog accidentally bit Gibb in the hand while he was tending to her. It was then the cougar returned for a second round, once again attacking and pawing at Gibb.
Sasha ran off during this second altercation and Gibb tells the outlet that the cougar now had its eyes set on Gibb’s other dog, Mongo.
“I could see the cougar going for him, so I got between him and the cougar and started swinging and screaming at it, and called for my brother and friend to come give a hand,” Gibb told the outlet. “And then I reached down for the closest, biggest stick that I could find and I ran back into the trees to go fight the cougar.”
Will Gibb saved his dog, Sasha from a cougar in Whitecourt. He scared the animal into the woods after punching it. Sasha is a bit rattled. pic.twitter.com/L3sIwUSoq8
— Travis McEwan (@TravisMcEwanCBC) December 28, 2016
The cougar finally retreated. Later, police found the cat and euthanized it. Gibb is recovering and Sasha, after being brought to the vet and being treated for cuts and bites, should be fine. Looking back, Gibb admits his actions weren’t too thought out, but he did what he needed to do.
“I wasn’t really analyzing it too much at the time,” Gibb told CBC. “All that was going through my mind is that I had to protect my dog.”
“It was just very instinctual. My dogs are like my children.”