Man Takes On Fisher Cat That Attacked Puppy In NH
EAST HAMPSTEAD, NH (CBS) - At about 22 pounds, Bentley the Cockapoo almost certainly outweighed his attacker. But he was no match for that wild animal's power.
On Tuesday night, Bentley followed his owner, James Maranto, to take out the trash. In an instant, he was gone. Then came that terrible sound.
"They're very high pitched," explains Maranto. "It's almost like someone getting murdered or something in the woods. It's a crazy scream."
It was a Fisher cat and it had 10-month-old Bentley down for the count. His owner had pry open the cat's mouth and wrestle it off the dog, getting a little scratched up himself in the process.
"It had the dog pinned down to the ground. I gave it a kick, it didn't stop," said Maranto.
The family lives in a fairly rural area, so they're used to seeing wild animals in the yard. Having one go on the attack, though, is a totally different story.
"This thing had him by the throat and on top of him," Maranto says. "And I was really expecting that his neck would be ripped open."
Maranto's wife got home just as the scene was coming to a close.
"Bentley's nose was bleeding and he had blood dripping down his face," explains Christine Maranto. "His paw had blood on it, and he had a little puncture right on his chest."
Now it's antibiotics and rabies shots for both man and man's best friend. And they've learned a lesson about what to expect in their own neighborhood.
"I was so thankful that Jimmy rescued him," Christine says. "Talk about loving a dog so much that you'd risk your life. This thing is a vicious creature. It's like a vampire in the night it kills. And it attacks."
