NEWSLINK: Calgary senior carries 'a stick and bear spray' after being mauled by bobcat in her backyard

Nancy Earl had seen bobcats in her Varsity backyard and they’d always bolted when confronted.


But the 70-year-old retired dentist said she received a rude awakening to the fearsome unpredictability of wild animals in August, when she was attacked and badly injured by one of the big cats.


On the evening of Aug. 23, Earl said her two cats confronted a larger animal in their enclosed yard, which backs onto Dale Hodges and Bowmont parks.


“I started yelling at it and my two cats raced back into the house . . . it was very aggressive, it was snarling,” said Earl.


That was when the bobcat she estimates weighed nine kilograms launched itself from the home’s patio about a metre away and onto her chest.

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