Recently, a mountain lion suddenly attacked a family home in the US state of California. Unexpectedly, this family’s pet dog sacrificed his life to run to confront the lion to protect his owner, even though this was the case. This caused injuries all over its body, but it eventually returned to health. The dog’s brave actions touched many people.

Engineer and designer Mary Padres (43 years old) never thought that her pet dog Rocky would act without hesitation like that. She said that Rocky was “very gentle”, “lovely and extremely gentle”.

Ms. Mary lives in La Verne city, she told The Epoch Times that “When I opened the door to the back garden, I discovered a very large mountain lion staring at me. It was prepared to hunt the dogs in my house.”

Ms. Mary runs a dog rescue facility. She was initially attracted by the mischief of the dog Rocky so she adopted him. Now Rocky has used this method to repay his master for saving his life.

Ms. Mary said: “He only thought about how to protect me. His instinct to try to save me made him do that, it was truly unbelievable.”

“The situation at that time was very scary, he chased the mountain lion.” Both Rocky and the mountain lion quickly disappeared into the night.

Because she was worried that the dog Rocky was more or less benign, Mary and her relatives ventured out to look for him in the middle of the night, calling his name all the way. They suddenly heard barking but it disappeared very quickly.

Ms. Mary said: “At that time we were really scared, we knew something was wrong.”

They took flashlights and searched for Rocky on the mountainside. After half an hour of calling, they suddenly heard light footsteps running towards them.

“We were a bit scared and didn’t know where those running footsteps were coming from, but finally we saw it was Rocky. It was almost rushing towards us, then weakly fell on us.”

Luckily, when it was dawn, Mary’s family took the dog to the veterinary hospital so it could be treated for emergency treatment. At that time, its wound was still bleeding, and its breathing had become very weak.

According to Ms. Mary, the dog’s head and neck had very large bite marks, possibly a mountain lion biting its head and dragging it.

At that time, the veterinarian gave at least 30 stitches to the dog Rocky. He was completely healthy again after 3 weeks but was still a bit shy when going into the backyard.

Ms. Mary expressed that she was surprised and grateful for the brave actions of this loyal dog. However, because mountain lions often lurk around residential areas, Mary also wants to remind her neighbors of the imminent danger, hoping they will pay attention to their children and family pets.