A "hero" dog is recovering after fighting off a mountain lion, which was roaming around his family's a La Verne home in California on Monday, November 1, per CBS Los Angeles.
Footage of the pit bull, who is called Rocky, sees the brave pooch barking and taking on the mountain lion in a bid to protect his owner, Mary Padres, whose home is not far from the Angeles National Forest.
"The mountain lion was looking right at me," Padres told the publication. "It was huge."
While both of her dogs tried to bark the lion off the premises, surprisingly, it was Padres' smaller dog, Rocky, that chose to pursue the big cat. He reportedly ran right after it, out of their backyard, and up the hill behind their house
Padres and her family went after Rocky armed with flashlights, despite the mountain lion being nearby. "We wanted to protect our dog," she told KCAL-TV.
Sadly, Rocky sustained eight large puncture wounds that required 30 stitches, but a veterinarian says that he will recover.
"We saw the hole all the way down to his brain," Padres said of his injuries, adding: "To make sure that I was OK, that’s the whole reason he went after that mountain lion."
A sizeable mountain lion had been spotted in the area two times in the past fortnight, CBS Los Angeles reports.
Padres believes it is the same one who was lurking around her home, and claimed that she had heard another animal being attacked after Rocky returned home safe. Speaking about the incident, she alleged that she heard "horrible crying, and then after that it's quiet".
As reported by KCAL-TV, two weeks ago on October 18, a mountain lion was captured walking past a house just two-and-a-half miles away from Padres' home — Padres told the publication that she's "100% sure" it's the same big cat.
Police are currently working with California Fish and Wildlife to determine whether the animal is a threat to other residents in the area.
