Florida woman uses bag of cookies to save dog from bear attack
A Florida woman says a bag of cookies saved her and her dog from a bear attack last week.
Kristen Savage told sister station WESH she was walking her dog, Ringo, in front of their house in the Sylvan Lake Reserve neighborhood around 8 p.m. on Friday.
鈥淭he bear snuck up behind me, went around my leg, and started biting at my dog,鈥� Savage said. 鈥淚 was hanging him like a pi帽ata basically in the air, but every time I put my dog down on the ground, she would go after him again.鈥�
Savage says that at one point, the bear had her dog in its mouth. She spun around, trying to keep her dog away, but she fell down.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 when I started to panic because I鈥檓 on the ground, I鈥檓 in a vulnerable position. My brain was like, 鈥楪et up and get big,鈥� so I did start waving my hands and screaming at her, and stepping towards the bear,鈥� Savage said. 鈥淪he did back off, but the second I took a break from that, she sprinted right at us again.鈥�
Savage said she remembered she had a bag of cookies that her mother had just given her.
鈥淚 kind of feel bad, but I smacked the bear across the face with a bag of cookies and I threw them at her face,鈥� Savage said.
That was enough to shift the bear鈥檚 attention to the cookies, and Savage and Ringo were able to escape. Surprisingly, Ringo was not hurt, but Savage suffered some scrapes on her leg from the fall.
The bear is well-known to people in the neighborhood: Savage has pictures of her nursing cubs in the backyard, and several doorbell camera videos showing the bears on the front porch and walking in her driveway.
She believes the bear may have thought Ringo was a threat, and was protecting her cubs. She doesn鈥檛 hold any ill will against the bear, but says it did make her realize to be more cautious.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 an important lesson to always have something on you that can scare them away, like an air horn or a spray,鈥� Savage said. 鈥淎nd just pay attention to your surroundings.鈥�