Posted on 09/03/2018 2:50:54 PM PDT by ETL
BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. (AP) -- A woman says her dog has died after warding off a bear that broke into her family's North Carolina home.
WRAL reported Saturday that the incident occurred in Black Mountain, a town outside Asheville in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Tiffany Merrill said she thought she was going to die when the bear broke in. She yelled to her children to shut their doors.
Her dog Pickles quickly appeared. Merrill said the five-pound dog "started barking and got the bear's attention and got the bear outside and he saved my life."
Merrill said she couldn't save her dog's life. She said she "wanted to go out there and jump on the back of the bear and save my dog."
She now finds herself grieving. She said Pickles "was always with me."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
They are driven by results.
Humans are plagued by emotions. Animals may have emotions, but they are much less powerful than human emotions.
Wild animals are fighting on the front line of survival (domestic animals are not that removed from the same kind of survival).
Emotions get in the way of survival...however much emotions are experienced by humans and animals, they are a luxury when survival is hanging by a thread.
That said, I live around many yard animals and household pets. I find them to be bright, driven, aggressive...and when they are secure in their position, they can be incredibly loving (i.e. emotional).
When she was much younger she chased a fox out of the yard. She went after it as a grey and black blur before I could intervene and stop her. After the fox was gone she comes running back to me doing the lopping “happy dog” prance/run. You know showing off like ,’Look what I did Dad!’. I wanted to put a black Maltese cross (an old “Surfers Cross” I found somewhere!) on her collar ! You know award her the “Iron Cross” for protecting the yard! My wife wouldn’t let me, she thought the neighbors wouldn’t understand!
And that is good; hopefully, he thought he had an even chance. In any event, he was a loyal and brave warrior.
And there are people on this very forum who say dogs don’t go to heaven.
Well, then, he could have been a Harvard professor.
I am part Cherokee also...those Cherokee girls must have been really something.;-)
As an aside, marrying an indigenous native was usually acceptable--even admired--for members of an invading force.
The real Pocahontas is a prime example.
I had a couple of the little messerschmitt hunds.
A bobcat got near the house and all hell broke loose.
Both dogs got cut up and wounded, but in the end the bobcat lost the fight. The two dogs were full of swagger after that even though they were pretty bloodied up.
Awsome breed.
Truer words were never spoken. I've had a lot of dogs over the years both big and little.
Those little ones always think they're the toughest ones.
My best friend lives in Black Mountain.
He phones about once a week or a little more often. He has mentioned seeing bears several times.
Bears are not as common here in the Florida Panhandle but my neighbor has seen one several times. He takes a hike daily.
You get more hound for the pound with a dachshund!
Also they’re they slapstick comedians of the K9 world!
Dogs never ate the apple and never fell from grace. They never needed a savior... Dogs will be there.
The humans who believe animals are just tossed away away are shallow and obviously have either never had a close relationship with an animal or they have been brainwashed by leaders of their so-called shallow Church.
And yes, I think all Christian Churches--Protestant and Catholic--are only grasping at the tail end of the Truth that is God (just because God is so incredibly large He is hard to comprehend...hard to bring down to human explanation).
God is--and His Heaven is--so much more than we have been told by our well-meaning but error-filled teachers.
Humans are pathetic when they try to tell us about God and Heaven...and sometimes they are worse than pathetic, because they see that subject as a means to get what they want...as a will to power.
Heaven just wouldn't be very heavenly without dogs, cats, and the rest of those furry little guys.
That said, I can't get my brain around the idea that I might swim peacefully with Great White sharks.
I am, of course, open minded to whatever God has planned for us.
Good Dog, Pickles.
I think you are defining emotions into too small of a corner. Animals feel needs as emotions. The need for food, the need for shelter, the need to protect their young. They do not, generally, think abstractly. Animals will eat their young of they get hungry enough, or even over stressed. Animals work off of competing feelings, that is, emotions.
Brilliant!
Beautifully said. And I agree.
When my late rottweiler was dying of liver cancer, we had her blessed by our priest. He actually thanked us for bringing her to him, and said, “She’s a beloved family member, and I sure would like to believe we see our pets in Heaven...”
He then proceeded to tell her all about Heaven and St. Francis, and wouldn’t you know it, she suddenly sat up very straight, and strong, and listened intently to him. Something in her told her she was listening to something very important.
To me it’s very telling that Islam hates dogs, and finds them “Haram” or forbidden.
To quote another freeper, I’d like to end up in the Heaven where my dogs are. It wouldn’t be heaven otherwise. But I have so many acquaintances who insist to be experts on Heaven, and are even so bold as to claim they speak for God.
My take is — it’s too large for my brain to comprehend. And I don’t dare speak with any knowledge of it.
My thought too.
I find it’s good to remind myself all religions and philosophies are man made. Religions in particular were formed to not only give spiritual guidance from a source greater than ourselves but to also keep large numbers of people in line. It was soon learned it could be a great source of income as well so churches, temples, and mosques could be built.
Like all things man made; these religions were used by unscrupulous people for self-gain. We see the Catholic church going through a major scandal with a bad Pope. This didn’t happen over night. It developed over hundreds of years. I’m just surprised it has taken this long to erupt. It did it before and the church assured everyone it will never happen again. Apparently all they did was shuffle priests around to make it look like they fixed it.
These days I take all religions with a grain of salt. I believe they can be a good way to teach the young to know right from wrong but it can also harm them as we’ve seen.
Again; they are man-made so like anything humans do - there can be corruption involved.
I had a travel assignment in Asheville a few years ago and my housing was in Black Mountain. Very beautiful. As I was walking my dog Otis, a lady pulled up beside me and asked if I’d like a ride home. I said no, I was walking my dog. She said well there’s a bear been following you and he probably wants to go after the dog. Otis(exactly two years gone now) and I hopped in her car and she took us home. I never did see the bear though.
Two dachshunds beat a bobcat?
I’m doubtful no offense
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