A plumber from Grand Forks, B.C., has earned the title of “hero” from his daughter after he fought off a cougar that attacked her dog this month.
Ian Orser and his daughter Megan were with their three dogs at a job site east of the Kootenay community on April 9 when it happened.
“All of a sudden I heard this noise, a dog yowling and a cat screeching,” Orser told Global News. “At first I thought it was a dog fight.”
The situation turned out to be far more serious.
“Megan ran down to where the noise was and the cougar had dragged her dog across the driveway onto the other side of the drive and by that point had it by the head,” he said.
“Number one, I was worried about the dog, and, of course, my daughter is there, so if it’s a cougar, it’s pretty scary.”
Orser sprang into action, rushing the animal and kicking it in the head several times, prompting the cat to let go of Megan’s nine-year-old Shephard-cross, Red.
“He looked at me, he didn’t attack me or anything, I grabbed a stick and started shaking the stick around, beating the ground, looking as big as I could and he sort of sauntered away,” Orser said.
The Orsers loaded their dogs back into their truck and raced into town to find a veterinarian.
Orser said he saw the cougar again on the driveway out of the site and took aim at it with the truck, but the animal ran off.
In all, Red needed about 20 stitches for puncture wounds to her back, neck, chest and two legs.
She’s now being treated with antibiotics and pain killers, and Orser said she’s “on the mend” and playing with their other dogs again.
The cougar, he said, was euthanized by the B.C. Conservation Officers Service.
Officers phoned him the next day to say they’d found the animal’s tracks and located it, and that it was an older, emaciated male in “pretty rough shape,” he said.
Megan told Global News she’s just happy to have her dog home and safe.
“My dad’s a hero,” she said. “He saved my dog’s life. He’s very brave.”
-With files from Jordan Armstrong