Predator surrenders would-be dinner after being cornered by pet's owners and neighbours

By Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun

When Bob the Wonder Pug was put out by his owners at dinnertime, he nearly became dinner for a wolf waiting in his Prince Rupert yard.

Seconds after owner Courtney Scott put her "furry son" out the door last weekend, her neighbours Norm and Colleen Hebert saw a large grey wolf carrying the pug into the front yard, settling in to kill it.

"Norm grabbed his hockey stick and ran through the screen door -- he forgot to open the screen -- he was swinging at the wolf and hit the wolf with the hockey stick, but he wouldn't drop the dog," Scott told The Sun. "[The wolf] took off down the embankment between our houses and it's steep."

Norm came straight over to Scott's home shouting that Bob had been taken by the wolf.

"This is just 20 seconds after I put the dog out," said Scott.

Scott, who had given birth to her newest son Marcus just six days earlier, ran to the top of the embankment and could see the wolf gnawing on Bob. "He was trying to kill it again, trying to break his neck."

"I take a flying leap over the embankment, running, screaming and crying and did a big somersault faceplant, but I was the first one down there," said Scott, still bruised from her efforts. "I landed on my poor boobs and I just had a baby."

Norm, his stepson Chase and Scott's husband Trevor Deschamp piled over the embankment after Scott, who was swearing a blue streak at the wolf and chasing it into the forest as it carried Bob in its jaws. "I was so mad, I would have killed that wolf if I had gotten ahold of it," Scott recalled.

"It's really traumatizing to see your dog taken away, he's four so he's really part of the family," said Scott. "It's just scary to see a wolf carrying your dog away in its mouth."

The four of them ran through the woods, though Deschamp was now in his stocking feet after losing his shoes in the muck. The more agile wolf lost the group in the trees temporarily, until Bob yelped. The group cornered the wolf against a mesh fence.

"Chase hit it with a stick and it still wouldn't drop the dog and then my husband showed up, he was going a little slower because he had no shoes," Scott said. "Chase threw a rock at the wolf and it finally dropped the dog, Chase picked up Bob and handed him to Trevor."

Bob was having trouble breathing, so Deschamp and Hebert ran out of the woods to get the dog to the veterinarian.

But as Scott and Chase were walking back to the house, they noticed the wolf was following them.

"He was about five feet behind us and I was still really mad," Scott said. "It followed us because it still wanted the dog."

"I threw a stick at it and Chase threw a rock, but it still followed us, probably hoping someone would drop another dog."

Bob is expected to make a full recovery after receiving treatment for puncture wounds.

"Thank God Bob had tons of skin," Scott said. "That's the only reason he's alive, he should have been dead."

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/narrowly+escapes+becoming+wolf+chow/275...

rshore@vancouversun.com