Labour Day Monday – beautiful, sunny fall day – early afternoon @ Paul’s cabin in the woods…….our resident pooch, Sadie ( whom some of you know from the Airdrie store) was lounging on the deck with us.
Paul & I both briefly went inside the cabin to get a nice,cold beer when we heard panicky barking! We saw Sadie through the screen door, barking at something and backing up. Paul flew to the door, banged it open with his fist, and started hollering, “You get out of here!” Sadie took that instant to fly inside the house at top speed! I was horrified to see a cougar on the deck about three feet away from Paul! Luckily, the bang of the screen door opening, plus Paul’s yelling startled and confused the cougar, and he bounded over the rail and took off. It all happened in the blink of an eye. When the adrenalin rush wore off, I started to shake so badly I couldn’t dial the neighbour’s number to call and warn them!
Somehow in this melee, Sadie twisted her leg and was limping for awhile. One customer asked me why she was limping and I replied, “A cougar attack”, to which he quipped, “What! An older woman dressed like a 20 yr old attacked your dog?!” There’s something to be said for humour and comic relief !
On a more serious note again, we almost learned the hard way to never relax your vigilance when venturing into the wilderness with your pet. From now on, bear bangers and flares will never be more than an arm’s length away!
