Five-year-old pekingese Japanese Chin escapes clutches of cougar during attack Sunday night in Fairview
By Nelson Daily Staff
By Bruce Fuhr, The Nelson Daily
Sunday night was a scary time for Misha Burns and the family dog, Sasha.
The pekingese Japanese Chin came within a whisker of being cat food when a prowling cougar confronted five-year-old family pet near the corner of Kokanee and Seventh Street in Fairview.
“It was a little bit freaky,” Misha Burns told The Nelson Daily Monday from her home in Fairview. “We heard some yelping outside and when we looked out the window we saw a cougar walking across the street.”
Of course the first thing that went through the minds of the Fairview family was where was Sasha.
Luckily the cougar just gave Sasha a swat with the paw, probably thinking there were bigger meals, and deer, somewhere on the streets of Fairview.
“Sasha is okay now,” Burns said. “She just has a puncture wound in her chest probably from the cougar’s claw.”
Burns said the attack happened around 10 p.m. Sunday.
Nelson Police was immediately called to the scene along with a Conservation Officer.
After the attack, Nelson Police members located the large cat on at least two occasions before the Conservation officer arrived on the scene.
The officer quickly deployed trained hunting dogs to track cougar, which was later killed.
Burns said there have been cougar sightings in Fairview during the past two months, including one earlier Sunday morning by residents.
Unfortunately, she didn’t think much about the warning.
“Kids who live down stairs heard loud growl about a month ago and there have been other sightings, but I really didn’t think too much about it,” Burns confessed. “I really didn’t take them too seriously until Sunday.”
Burns said Sasha sometimes sneaks out of the house, which she did on this occasion to play with two neighbouring dogs that live in the basement of the rental unit.
Sasha is sometimes tied up in the yard, which wasn’t the case Sunday night because the outcome may not have been very good.
“Sasha wouldn’t have stood a chance if she was tied up against that cougar,” explained Burns, adding Sasha had chased away two bears last year from the deck of the house.
The Conservation officer estimates the cougar was a two-to-three-year old female weighing in at 70 to 80 pounds.
editor@thenelsondaily.com
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