A seven-year-old boy from northern B.C. was back at school Monday, a few days after being mauled by a cougar as he was playing in the snow.
The boy's mother was nearby and managed to scare the cougar away.
It was the first of two incidents in the province last week in which young boys encountered cougars.
Mary Metzler was doing some cleaning at a local school in Danskin, just south of Burns Lake, on Thursday while her son was tobogganing outside.
Suddenly, she heard a scream and knew instantly that it was serious, she told CTV News.
Metzler looked outside and saw an animal -- she didn't realize it was a cougar at first -- on top of her son, David Jr.
The cougar's mouth was on David's head.
She opened the door. The cougar looked up. David's toque was dangling from the cougar's mouth.
The mother ran up to the cougar and slapped its face with a scrub rag.
Mother and animal locked eyes.
The cougar then turned around and ran off.
"In my mind there was no choice. That thing was on top of him, going after him," Metzler said. "I knew if I hesitated, and went back in to call for help, it would be too late. I didn't have a lot of time."
Conservation officers later found the cougar, as well as another cougar, and shot both of them dead.
Metzler said injuries to her son's head are healing.
She said she used to tell her children that such incidents only happen in the bush.
"I can't say that anymore," she said.
Two days after that incident, another cougar went after an 11-year-old boy outside his home in Boston Bar, about 200 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.
But before the cougar got to the boy, the family's pet golden retriever, Angel, jumped in and engaged the cougar.
Angel suffered numerous puncture wounds and is recovering.
With files from CTV's Rob Brown
