Jim Hamm is lucky that his wife, Nell, kept her head while a mountain lion had a deathlock on his. The 70 year old hiker was attacked by the lion while hiking in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Nell tried stabbing the cat in the eye with a ballpoint pen but the pen broke. Then she tried beating the lion with a big stick. Finally she jammed the butt end of the stick up the lion’s nose and that convinced the animal to let go of her husband.
One thing the Hamms did that helped them survive was to talk ahead of time about the possibility of a lion attack. It’s something to think about if you’re considering hiking in the Santa Monica mountains. It wouldn’t hurt to read up on the standard advice–don’t try to run away, appear to be huge, make a lot of noise, fight back aggressively when approached.
But if you really want to know how to survive a cougar attack, consider this: the Holy Spirit is more than one billion times faster than a cougar.
(cf. Man rips leopard’s tongue out)
[Photo via publicdomainphotos.net]
Originally published February 1, 2007
