When the lion attacked, Eva had moved far ahead from her owner in the hike. But she rushed back and wedged herself between the cat and her owner.
Eva the Belgian Malinois, who nearly lost her life defending her owner from a mountain lion, is finally at home and relaxing on a brand-new bed with brand-new toys.
The attack took place on May 16 in Trinity County, northern California, when Erin Wilson, 24, pulled over at a picnic spot alongside State Route 299 and started walking down a path toward the Trinity River. But before she had gone very far, a mountain lion had cornered her.
"I'm just walking down the slope and the dog had run ahead of me. And I turn around and there's this cat just growling at me and it reaches up and it swipes at me," Wilson told NPR. "At first, I was just like, Wait, what? And I think I screamed and I shouted for Eva and she came running."
Mountain Lion assaults on humans are exceedingly uncommon. Due to the mountain lion's often timid and solitary temperament, just six fatal mountain lion assaults have been documented in California since 1890. Although deer are typically abundant in their woodland habitat, current drought conditions have made food limited in certain regions. Deer is their favourite prey. According to Wilson, these circumstances made the sudden emergence of a thin woman seem like a desirable choice.
Wilson's left shoulder was scratched by the lion's swipe as Eva ran back at the sound of distress. Eva jumped between Wilson and the lion in an attempt to defend her human. By tackling the wild cat, she started a fight for survival between the two creatures.
Wilson struggled to release her dog as the mountain lion encircled Eva's head after a brief struggle, striking it with rocks in an effort to loosen its hold. Wilson eventually returned to her truck and signalled for Sharon Houston, a passing driver, to stop. Wilson and Houston hurried back down the trail after getting a crowbar from her truck, and their combined efforts succeeded in scaring the large cat away.
Wilson was hurt and shaken by the incident, but she was still able to carry Eva back to her truck and drive her quickly to the VCA Asher Animal Hospital in Redding. Although the 2-year-old puppy didn't require surgery, her injuries were nevertheless severe. On May 19, Eva was discharged from the veterinary facility wearing surgical tape around both of her front paws, had multiple stitched-up areas that had been shaved, and the doctor had warned her that she might lose the sight in her left eye.
However, Eva seemed to be in good spirits as news footage from the Sacramento Bee showed the dog wagging her tail and being active as she and Wilson exited the veterinary clinic.
"I would do anything for her," Wilson told the Bee. "And now I know that she would do pretty much anything for me."
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