A Glendale nurse is warning local residents to be on the lookout for a mountain lion that attacked and dragged her dog Monday evening just outside her home.
Laura McVay, a health care worker at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said the big cat grabbed a 5½-year-old brown shih tzu named Declan around 11:30 p.m. “feet away from the door.”
“My shih tzu was bright and fun and funny and had a great personality and everyone loved him and loved him,” McVay said. “Losing a dog is always hard, but when it’s a sweet soul like him, it’s even harder.”
McVay said he had taken Declan out of his private apartment the night of the attack.
The two were walking home when McVay said he heard a pull and a “whoosh” from behind.
Photo of Glendale resident Laura McVay and her shih tzu, Declan, who were taken by a cat down in the mountains of Glendale on Monday.
(Courtesy of Laura McVay)
The cat’s jaws were around Declan.
McVay first tried to shout and make himself bigger to scare the attacker. However, those efforts were not enough.
“It was very powerful,” McVay said of the cougar. “I’m pulling on his rope screaming and trying to do everything you’re told to do.”
During the heat, McVay said he wasn’t sure if he let go or if the mountain lion tore Declan off the rope, but the cat dragged its prey back into the nearby hills.
He said, with his adrenaline pumping, he didn’t fear for his own safety, “although in retrospect, maybe I should have.”
After the attack, “I was in shock,” McVay said. “I called my best friend and he yelled at me and tried to comfort me.”
McVay said he went to bed sad and didn’t know what steps to take. He eventually filed an attack report with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Fish and Wildlife spokesman Cort Klopping said the department’s biologist headed to the area in the Verdugo Mountains where the attack occurred to investigate and spoke with McVay.
“From the description given, I think it’s safe to say it was a mountain lion,” Klopping said. “It seems like a scary experience.”
Klopping added that while there have been no reports of mountain lion attacks in the immediate area, the Verdugo Mountains are a “resilient wildlife island” that includes bears, coyotes and mountain lions.
He said that mountain lion game is not easily available recently, which makes them look for other sources of food.
McVay said he did not see the need to carry a stick or try other methods of self-defense because he grew up in the area and only knows foxes, which he felt could be easily frightened. He said he had never heard of a mountain lion attack in his area.
McVay said he wished he had just taken Declan into the backyard to relieve himself, but he knows how much his shih tzu loved to walk outside.
“If I can give you advice, it’s to carry a bat or a weapon to protect yourself and your animal,” said McVay. “If I can save at least one life, that will help me fix this.”
Here are a few tips from the Department of Fish and Wildlife to reduce the chance of a mountain lion encounter, or what to do if an encounter does occur:
- Avoid walking or jogging in the morning, dusk or at night.
- Keep pets on a leash and, if you are traveling with small children, do not let them run ahead.
- You can crouch or crouch but face the animal, make a loud noise and try to look big.
