Brave Buddy's Vet Bills

My friend Lee's little dog Buddy was attacked by a mountain lion! It broke into the house and attacked Buddy, shaking him up quite a bit. He had many lacerations and a sore neck. Buddy made the news after the attack!

I've known Lee for ages. She is a wonderful, lovely person and a great dog-mom, but the vet bills are really adding up and she could use a little help. Can you kick in a few bucks and help her and brave little Buddy?

Here's the news story: Newsweek article on mountain lion attack

And here is the story of the attack, in Lee's own words:

Buddy is better today. He finally ate something and drank some water. A local news service has written the story, which I will try to share. Here is my version:

We (Buddy and I) are staying with my brother, Ted, on top of a mountain above Santa Barbara across from a small community called Painted Cave. Ted has lived on the mountain since 1967, and built his three story house here by himself over the years.

We had heard there were mountain lions close by, so I always walked Buddy on a leash, and even saw a paw print on the walk above the house.

Buddy fit into the house perfectly, running up and down the stairs and depositing his ball and toys in every room. There are lots of wild critters around, so we weren’t too surprised when Buddy started barking, but I went downstairs to check on him. He seemed to be barking and scratching at a small hole in the wall. On the other side of that wall there is a wild, beautiful canyon. There are French Doors leading outside to fascilitate stepping outside to enjoy the view. I told Buddy to leave whatever he was barking at alone and went upstairs, figuring he was getting good exercise barking and playing downstairs.

At a little past 8pm, His barking became more frantic, and there was a loud noise, and the barking stopped. I ran downstairs to find that there was a broken window in the French Door and glass strewn all over the room. I open the door and called Buddy but had to go back upstairs to get a flashlight and help. Tracy (my sister in law) came back down with me to look for Buddy while my brother went to get his gun. We couldn’t see him anywhere and figured he had been grabbed and taken away when we heard a noise in the bedroom down a hall. We looked in and there was a very large lion with a very limp Buddy in her mouth. She shook him a number of times, so we figured he was dead. She was trying to find a way out of the room, crashing against windows and doors.

Tracy closed the door and ran upstairs to get her bear pepper spray. When she came back and opened the door, the lion had laid down by Buddy preparing to eat him. I was standing behind Tracy, blocking the lion from going out the way it came in, and I was able to watch Tracy deal with the lion.

She walked right into the room and up to the lion, blasting her directly with pepper spray. The lion stood up and faced Tracy, looking right at her, claws out and teeth bared. Tracy moved Buddy away from the lion with her foot and blasted her again, then she walked to the French Doors in that room, which lead to a balcony about thirty feet above the canyon and opened them. She then chased the lion out the doors and onto the balcony and the lion leaped into the canyon.

I picked Buddy up and was surprised to see that he was breathing. I wrapped him up and we took him to Emergency Veterinary Care in Santa Barbara.