A stop at a Tim Hortons restaurant included a cougar attacking a pet dog on Boxing Day in Whitecourt, Alberta, but the dog’s owner came to the rescue.
William Gibb, 31, punched the cougar in the head while it was attacking his dog, the Toronto Sun reported.
The Alberta man said he stopped at a Tim Hortons in Whitecourt the day after Christmas to let his dogs go to the bathroom in a nearby wooded area. He then heard one of them let out a painful yelp.
When Gibb ran to see what was going on, he found a cougar on top of his dog. In defense of his dog, he said he bashed the cougar in the head with his fist.
“She (Sasha) was crying out in pain and distress so I went running,” Gibb told CBC News. “And I saw something wrapped around her so I ran up and punched it in the side of the head.”
“At that point I realized it was a cougar,” he added.
Gibb said his dog bit him in the process, but he thinks it was due to the chaos.
“She was fighting for her life, and I was trying to keep the cougar at bay with my right, and it was pawing at me and I was throwing punches at it,” Gibbs told CBC.
After that, the cougar jumped off Gibb's dog.
Following the attack, Gibb called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who found the cougar in the trees near the restaurant.
When officers spotted the cat, it was ready to attack so they shot and killed the cougar, the Sun reported.
Gibb took the dog to a veterinarian to be treated for its wounds and cuts.
Whitecourt RCMP Sgt. Tom Kalis told The Guardian that Gibb “was quite lucky.” Cougars rarely attack, despite being spotted in Whitecourt fairly often.
Gibb escaped the incident without any severe injuries, according to RCMP.
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