A California woman desperately tried to save her dog from a mountain lion attack by trying to pry her pet from the jaws of the large predator.
The woman was eventually unsuccessful and the dog died in the attack, according to multiple reports from local news agencies.
Officers arriving at the scene saw the lion eating the dog in the woman’s backyard, before it ran away again into the hills, according to the Ventura County Star.
The attack happened in Simi Valley, in the southeast corner of Ventura County around 40 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
According to NBC4, the woman was woken up by her dog when a mountain lion came into the backyard of her home in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The woman has not been named but her brother, who NBC4 identified only as Brian, said his sister was woken up at around 2 a.m. on Thursday by her dog Pumbaa, and opened the back door for him thinking he wanted to go to the bathroom.
“I think she went out first, she saw the mountain lion and her dog charged under her legs toward the mountain lion, and the mountain lion snapped it up,” he told NBC4.
Brian said his sister tried to pry the jaws of the mountain lion open in order to save the dog because “she loves her dog so much,” according to NBC4.
