Lady, a small Pit Bull/Chihuahua (wow!) mix, liked to keep a protective eye on the kids in the Havens family of Idaho Springs, Colo.
When the Havens family adopted Lady three years ago, they knew right away she was something special, Virginia Havens, Lady’s owner, told CBS4.
“Any time the kids were outside, she was five steps behind them,” Havens told CBS4. “They would play in the sandbox, she was keeping watch everywhere, all the time.”
Lady was doing what she always does on June 14 when a 6-foot mountain lion began stalking the children as they played in their front yard. When Lady saw the big cat, Havens said the hero dog first took off in the other direction to gain momentum before springing on it.
As Havens’ husband grabbed the kids and brought them inside the house, the mountain lion clamped its jaws around Lady’s head. Lady “was doing her best to get out of the hold,” Havens told CBS4. “I heard her crying out, which made me more frantic because she was my fur baby,”
Havens called the police. When they arrived, they shot the mountain lion with non-lethal rounds, The mountain lion dropped Lady and took off.
Havens said she screamed when she saw Lady’s injuries. “She was just a bloody mess,” Havens told CBS4. “Her eye was bulging, she had labored breathing and a hole in her skull.”
Although Lady was rushed to an animal hospital, she sadly had to be euthanized due to her severe injuries. But thanks to Lady’s bravery, the Havens children were unharmed.
“If she had not been there, we would have had a completely different type of tragedy,” Havens told CBS4. “She was absolutely our hero.”
Photo: Olivia Danielle Ruiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons