text: Will Gibb says he didn't realize it was a cougar that had caught his beloved pet husky by the neck until after he pummelled the wild animal in the head. 
   
   "I wasn't really analyzing it too much at the time," Gibb said. "All that was going through my mind is that I had to protect my dog. 
   
   "It was just very instinctual. My dogs are like my children." 
   
   The Red Deer man was meeting a friend for coffee at the Whitecourt Tim Hortons on Dec. 26, when he let his two dogs Sasha and Mongo out into the parking lot for a short run. 
   
   Will Gibb and his dog Sasha are recovering at home and coping with a lot of media attention 4:01 
   
   Within seconds, he said he heard Sasha, the female of the pair, start yelping. 
   
   A cougar had emerged from the woods nearby and pounced, he said. 
   
   "She (Sasha) was crying out in pain and distress so I went running," said Gibb, a 31-year-old technician. "And I saw something wrapped around her so I ran up and punched it in the side of the head. 
   
   "At that point I realized it was a cougar." 
   
   Gibb said he charged into the woods after the cougar but turned around to tend to his injured dog, which was whimpering and bleeding on the pavement. 
   
   'It was pawing at me and I was throwing punches' 
   
   "I was swinging but I looked back and I saw that Sasha was on the ground kind of twitching," Gibb recalled. "So I went back and tried to scoop her up with my left arm." 
   
   But the dog, alarmed from the attack, latched onto Gibb's hand and started biting, just as the cougar re-emerged from the woods and charged a second time. 
   
   In all the excitement, Sasha bit his left hand, something Gibb suggests was because the dog may have been "thinking I was the cougar." 
   
   He added: "She was fighting for her life, and I was trying to keep the cougar at bay with my right, and it was pawing at me and I was throwing punches at it." 
   
   Sasha sustained bite wounds to her neck and belly and under her legs. She was released from the veterinary clinic on Wednesday. (Travis McEwan/CBC ) 
   
   While the dog unlatched her teeth from his hand and ran off, the cougar was not deterred by Gibb's punches. As Sasha ran across the parking lot, the cougar fixed its eyes on Mongo, who was sniffing around at the edge of the nearby trees. 
   
   "I could see the cougar going for him, so I got between him and the cougar and started swinging and screaming at it, and called for my brother and friend to come give a hand," Gibb said. "And then I reached down for the closest, biggest stick that I could find and I ran back into the trees to go fight the cougar." 
   
   Within minutes, both dogs were back in the safety of Gibb's truck, and the cat disappeared into the bush. 
   
   "I was surprised to hear that the owner took the quick action and it's probably what saved the dog's life in this case," said Sgt. Jack Poitras, who said the cougar was located in the woods nearby and killed. 
   
   "I wouldn't recommend everybody wrassle with a cougar, but in this case it worked for the best." 
   
   'She had bite wounds around her neck' 
   
   The dog was taken immediately to the Hilltop Veterinary Clinic, which is about a block from the attack. 
   
   Veterinary staff said Wednesday the dog has been released from care. 
   
   "She had bite wounds around her neck and claw tears on her belly, under her armpits," said Jordan Bremmekamp, the veterinarian who treated the husky. "I had to sew up some of her wounds. They tore into her muscle. It's a pretty painful situation she's in, but she's doing fine." 
   
   The man was left with deep claw marks on his arms. 
   
   Police consulted Whitecourt fish and wildlife officials before killing the cougar. 
   
   "The wildlife does come into town once in a while," Poitras said. "Dogs are easy prey." 
   
   Poitras had this advice for mountain wilderness-area visitors, particularly when accompanied by pets: "If you're out in the wilderness near the mountains, be aware that cougars and other predators are out there. Just be mindful of that, when you're out and about with your pets." ||||| CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A Canadian man punched a cougar in the face to stop it attacking his dog in a wooded area near a fast food store in Whitecourt, central Alberta, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said on Wednesday. 
   
   William Gibb, 31, from Red Deer, Alberta, had stopped at a Tim Hortons outlet, a popular Canadian restaurant chain while driving 600-kilometre (372-miles) to Grand Prairie on Monday evening and let his dog out for a walk, Whitecourt RCMP Sergeant Tom Kalis said. 
   
   Shortly after, Gibb heard his 80-pound (36-kg) female Husky called Sasha whimpering in pain and found a cougar pinning her to the ground. 
   
   “I could see something wrapped around her and wasn’t sure what it was. I ran over and punched it in what I thought was the head, and it backed off and I realized it was a cougar,” Gibb, an electrician, told Reuters. 
   
   “I stepped over Sasha and charged at it swinging and screaming and calling for my brother and buddy to give a hand,” he added. 
   
   Gibb kept the cougar at bay, which he said swiped at him a few times, as he tended to his injured dog and called the police, before getting Sasha into his truck and driving her away for medical attention. 
   
   He said the police arrived five or 10 minutes later and, after consulting with fish and wildlife officers, killed the cougar because of the risk it could attack another dog or even humans. 
   
   Gibb himself was not seriously injured, although Sasha bit him on the hand as he was trying to rescue her. 
   
   Kalis said cougar sightings were not uncommon around Whitecourt because the town is surrounded by forests, but it is unusual for them to attack dogs.
target: – Sometimes dogs save humans, sometimes humans save dogs. The latter was the case in Canada last week when a man punched a cougar that had a death grip on his 80-pound husky's neck, reports Reuters. Will Gibb, a 31-year-old technician from Red Deer, had pulled up to a Tim Hortons for coffee and let his dogs Sasha and Mongo out of his truck for a quick run around the parking lot, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. When he heard Sasha yelping in pain seconds later, he "went running" to save her, he tells the CBC. But it wasn't until he "punched it in the side of the head" that he saw the animal was a cougar. (Sightings are common but attacks rare, says an RCMP deputy.) The cat ran into the woods, but the punch proved insufficient. As Gibb tried to pick up Sasha's twitching body, the apparently confused dog bit him and the cougar reemerged, so he had to throw punches with his right arm while trying to protect his dog and his hurt left arm. "She was fighting for her life," Gibb says of Sasha, who ran to safety. When the cougar went for Mongo, Gibb grabbed a big stick and got in its way before chasing it off into the woods again. With a vet clinic just a block away, Sasha was tended to quickly, while local police found and killed the cougar. The vet says Sasha had to be sewn up in her chest and had deep bites around her neck, but she survived thanks to her owner. (And you thought the guy who punched a kangaroo was brave.)