A Nanaimo woman attacking a cougar after it attacked her friend's dog is a story that stands out with a NanaimoNewsNOW reporter. (Google Street View)

By Ian Holmes

2020 in review

Our Favourite Stories of 2020: Woman attacks cougar in bid to save dog at Nanaimo River

Dec 21, 2020 | 7:52 PM

NANAIMO — A story that stands out from 2020 fits perfectly with how wild a year it was.

Cougar sightings alone are quite rare and typically almost never result in a physical interaction and over a 17 year career in journalism, I’ve never covered on a story involving a person who attacked a cougar.

On Saturday, May 9, Jenny Albright didn’t sit back after a young cougar believed to be separated from its mother mauled her friend’s chihuahua.

It happened while Albright and her friend and their children were day-camping at the river, near an area known as Jump Bridge.

During my phone interview with Albright, I was completely astounded by her actions. She said picked up a large rock and threw it at the cougar as the off-leash dog squealed in pain.

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“I kicked it three times and then it swatted at me,” Albright said. “I backed up and (it) only got me with a little knick. Then I kicked him three more times in the face and he finally dropped the dog.”

Albright said the wounded dog ran from the bridge to the river, while the cougar stood firm. Three people in the area heard the commotion and rushed to the scene.

“They stood by that bridge, made noise and shooed it away, while I walked up to the tent and started packing all of our stuff into my truck as fast as I could.”

Albright said her actions were dictated by adrenaline to save her friend’s dog.

“I was in shock for six or seven hours…the next day I couldn’t believe I did that,” Albright said as her voiced trembled with emotion.

The dog, belonging to a friend, died the next evening due to head trauma.

Two years ago I had, what I believed to be, my first encounter with a cougar. I was running along the trail on the back side of Witchcraft Lake part-way up Mount Benson, when I saw a head poke from around a tree. It was about 30 meters away and I immediately stopped.

After about a 10 second stare-down I slowly backed away and the animal with a long tail ran in the opposite direction. I didn’t get a clear view of this thing, but I’m confident it was a big cat.

My heart was beating so fast, wondering to myself ‘is that young cougar alerting it’s mother and will they be coming after me?’ I eventually made it back to my vehicle safely with my heart racing.

While cougars are incredibly shy animals, it seems inevitable more human-cougar interactions will occur in the future given our growing population.

It’s believed in the range of 3,500 cougars live in British Columbia, of which around a quarter reside on Vancouver Island.

Conservation officers advise if you come across a cougar don’t scream, don’t run, make yourself look as big as possible, look it in the eye and slowly back away while facing it.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterterholmes