‘I thought it was friendly’: Two kids and their dog fend off mountain lion cub in Utah

HYDE PARK, Utah — Two children out walking with their dog were surprised to find out that what they first believed was a kitten was actually a young cougar.

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Lucy, 16, and Jackson, 9, were walking in Hyde Park with their dog Harley, when Jackson saw what they believed was a cat.

“Jackson pointed out he saw a cat and it was sort of meowing at us and I thought it was friendly,” Lucy explained to KSL. “I went to go approach it. I gave Harley to Jackson and then it went straight past me and made a beeline for Harley and started attacking her. … It was also the size of Harley, just a little skinnier, and at that point it was like, ‘Oh shoot. It’s not a cat.’”

“I was feeling really scared and I wanted to just run forward and get away from it,” Jackson told KSL.

North Park police Lt. Justin Olsen told The Herald Journal that animal control is investigating the incident.

“I told my little brother to go run ahead,” Lucy told The Herald Journal. “We kept walking and I tried to scare it off a little bit, and I guess that worked.”

On social media, Hyde Park posted that there had been an incident reported with a young mountain lion, but reported no injuries.

Brittany Britsch, the children’s mother, told The Herald Journal that the dog was fine and did not need to go to the vet.

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