Dogs are a man’s best friend is a saying which is repeated time and again. And the saying does not come without reason; dogs are incredibly loyal to their owners.
Eva is another such dog who has proven once again that dogs really are a person’s best friend for how they have your back!
Erin Wilson was on an afternoon stroll with her dog Eva along the Trinity River in far Northern California. Eva is Erin’s trusted two and a half years old Belgian Malinois dog.
Erin Wilson is a 24-year-old and lives in rural Trinity County, about four hours northwest of Sacramento. The dog and owner duo jumped in Erin Wilson’s pickup truck and headed to the Trinty River for a relaxing stroll.
Little did they know the relaxing stroll would turn into a matter of life and death.
Eva was without a leash, walking ahead of her owner. The two were still quite near Highway 299, near enough that their pickup truck was still in sight.
Just a few yards on the track, a mountain lion appeared and lunged at Wilson. The big cat’s claws swiped at Wilson and made contact with her shoulder even through her jacket.
The terrified woman believed that the growling cat would pounce on her. She instinctively called for her dog Eva.
She said, “I yelled ‘Eva!’ and she came immediately,” adding, “And she hit that cat really hard.”
Her dog, Eva weighed a mere 55 pounds and while the momentum gave her traction, she could not match the strength of the mountain lion.
According to Wilson, the animals fought for a few seconds but then she heard a cry from her dog. “That’s when the cat latched on to her skull,” says Wilson.
This is when Erin Wilson’s instincts to protect her dog kicked in. She tried to fight the mountain lion with anything she could find; rocks, sticks, and even her fists. Wilson recalls she even tried to choke the cat with her arms and gouge at its eyes. Because of her efforts, she even received scratches from the cat’s hind legs. But apart from some scratches and bruising, Wilson remained unharmed due to the bravery of her dog Eva.
But the mountain lion would not let Eva go. Wilson then ran back to her truck to get a tire iron and in the process flagged down a motorist. Sharon Houston stopped for Wilson and learned about the situation. This prompted Houston to grab her own weapons before she set off with Wilson to rescue her dog.
The two women were now armed with a tire iron, a four-foot PVC pipe, and pepper spray. The mountain lion by then had dragged the dog off the trail. The women followed and beat the cat as much as they could.
The mountain lion eventually let the dog go when Houston sprayed it with pepper spray.
Once freed, Eva ran back with her owner to her truck. Wilson recalls being amazed that Eva is okay but on closer inspection, she saw the wounds. She said, “I realized she had a couple of puncture wounds in her face. And she just had a lot of blood coming out of her mouth.”
She put her dog in the truck and rushed to the nearest emergency vet which was an hour and a half away in Redding, the biggest city in the region. During the frantic drive, her dog convulsed which panicked Wilson even more.
When they reached the vet, Eva was immediately given medical attention. The veterinarian ensured that there is no bleeding in the dog’s brain and that the pressure in her head was reducing.
Erin Wilson and her husband both visited the dog and plan on spoiling her with treats in the near future. Wilson said, “She really likes stuffed animals so we’re buying her a bunch of stuffies,” she said. “We’re going to get her a nice steak dinner. She’s going to get all sorts of treats for a while.”
Since the incident, Erin Wilson created a GoFundMe page to help with the vet expenses.
“My dog is my hero and I owe her my life.” Wilson wrote in the description of the funding appeal.
Since then Erin Wilson has been making updates for Eva on the dog’s Instagram page. She posted a video of Eva awake eating dog food and telling everyone that the dog has been feeling better, talking, and eating.
She hopes her dog will be able to come home with her soon.
The story of how Eva saved her owner from a vicious attack by a mountain lion is so heartwarming. Were it not for the dog, the outcome could have been a lot worse. We wish Eva a speedy recovery!
Share Eva’s brave story with your friends and family.
