Woman Saves Husband From Mountain Lion in California Park
Lisa Leff
After the attack, game wardens closed the park 320 miles north of San Francisco and released hounds to track the cat. Wardens later shot and killed a pair of mountain lions found near the trail where the attack happened.
The carcasses were flown to a state forensics lab to determine whether either animal had mauled the man.
Hamm, 65, said she grabbed a 4-inch-thick log and beat the animal with it, but it wouldn't let go of her husband's head.
"Jim was talking to me all through this, and he said, 'I've got a pen in my pocket and get the pen and jab him in the eye,'" she said. "So I got the pen and tried to put it in his eye, but it didn't want to go in as easy as I thought it would."
When the pen bent and became useless, she went back to using the log. The cougar eventually let go, and with blood on its snout, it stood staring at her. She screamed and waved the log until the animal walked away.
"She saved his life, there is no doubt about it," said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game.
The couple walked a quarter-mile to a trailhead, where she gathered branches to protect them if more cougars came around. They waited until a ranger came by.