A woman checking on her barking dogs in the backyard did a quick about-face and raced into her house while calling for her dogs after realizing a momma bear was charging after the dogs and coming right toward her.
Lachmmie Coll-Gieg lives in South Lake Tahoe in California and is used to seeing bears in her backyard throughout the year, but this time was different.
“The dogs can usually sense the bears [from] inside of the house 10-15 minutes before they show up on the property,” Coll-Gieg told USA Today/For The Win Outdoors. “Sometimes, the dogs don’t alert me, so when I end up letting them out, it results in the dogs chasing bears. That’s what happened in this case, but it’s the first time a bear has actually ran towards us.”
The bear left claw marks on the back of the American Bully dog named Duchess before she and the Cockapoo quickly headed for safety with the bear giving chase. As soon as Coll-Gieg saw the charging bear, she made a U-turn and headed for the house, too.
“It took a second for my eyes to adjust and make out what I was seeing,” she told For The Win Outdoors. “When I realized there was a bear coming towards me, I honestly thought ‘Oh [expletive]!’ I thought the bear was going to catch up to me and my dogs and do some real damage.
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“I assume that there were cubs on our property and the bear was chasing out any threat to them.”
Fortunately the bear came to a halt as it neared the steps to the house, and went on its way.
“It’s apparent in the video just how fast bears are,” Coll-Gieg said. “The difference between knowing and seeing the speed of a bear is jaw dropping. There could have been a worse ending to this story, but I’m just thankful that my dogs and I were not seriously injured.”
Photos courtesy of Lachmmie Coll-Gieg and ViralHog.