A 78-pound woman from Trail, B.C. is crediting her brave pet border collie for saving her life after a starving cougar prowled into her home and attacked her.
Angie Prime, 35, was on her living room couch with her 14-week-old puppies Iver and Otto Sunday night when she saw an emaciated cougar enter the room.
“I happened to catch something in the corner of my eye,” Prime told CTV News. “I’ll always remember that face.”
The cat pounced on Prime, but before she was seriously hurt her 11-year-old collie, Vicious, ran to the rescue.
“She chased it right out, she was out of the yard with it and chasing it down,” Prime said.
The victim, while stunned, managed to sustain just a few small puncture wounds.
Prime said she spent the rest of the evening at her parents’ place until her husband came home. Vicious, meanwhile, was given the royal treatment.
“Got her some extra toys and she got lots of extra treats,” Prime said. “She had the full attention of my parents so she was in heaven.”
Authorities tracked the cougar and found it about 150 yards from the house, where conservation officer Aaron Canuel confirmed the animal was put down.
Canuel said the animal was old, severely emaciated and in “terrible condition.”
“Sometimes when a cougar’s that age and in that poor physical condition, their ability to hunt their natural prey like deer and elk diminishes significantly,” he said.
Canuel said the cat appears to have entered Prime’s house through an open screen door.
“It may have been because there were some pets in the vicinity, and it took its opportunity and it wandered in her house.”
The cougar was put down to prevent the possibility of it attacking another human, he added.
Canuel urged the public to report unusual cougar sightings in their neighbourhoods by calling conservation officers at 1-877-952-7277.
