A Connecticut woman is lucky to be alive after a harrowing encounter with a bear. She ended up using her water bottle to fight off a bear after it attacked her beloved dog.
Speaking with Hartford Courant, Kayleigh Roy revealed that she was out hiking with her dog Phoenix when they encountered the animal. Her dog ran ahead of her and came upon a bear. To make matters worse, it was a mother and her two cubs. Although the dog was friendly to the two cubs, mama bear attacked and dragged the dog through the woods.
"It was just such a horrible image, and I thought, 'I can't leave her,' " Roy recalled to the Courant. "I couldn't have this be our last memory together, so I knew I had to try and grab her. I'm not going to lie, I did think about running back. But I knew I had to do something or I just couldn't live with myself."
Bear Attacks Dog
Using her metal water bottle, Roy decided to chase after the bear and fight it to save her dog. "I started hitting the bear on the face and nose with my bag and bottle in it. I got her a few times with the bottle and one that hit her on the nose pretty good," she told the outlet. "I was flailing, making myself look big, and screaming like a crazy person. I was surprised that no one heard me."
"I was frantic and freaking out. I couldn't believe I got that close to a bear. We had literally locked eyes," she said. "My dog was dripping blood and had a lot of adrenaline, so I let her walk a little and then picked her up."
Following the bear attack, Roy quickly rushed Phoenix to a vet. Fortunately, the animal suffered no major injuries despite its brush with death.
"I started to cry," she recalled to the outlet. "When I brought her in, I couldn't see how bad the damage was because she has a lot of fur. But when I picked her up, I realized she was in a lot worse shape than I had thought. The veterinary techs there said that they could not believe she got away [from the bear] like that."
She's thankful that Phoenix is alive.
"She's such a sweet dog — everyone loves her," Roy told the Courant. "Just the other day, she greeted me at the door just like she used to do before she was attacked. That made me really happy, as I can see her coming back little by little. But it will be a journey to get her back to fully healed."
