Toy poodle saves owner from 200 pound bear, Pickle 5lb poodle, Bear charged in Black Mountain home, Poodle sacrificed life

“A 5-pound toy poodle named Pickle is being called a hero after jumping between its owner and a bear inside a North Carolina home Friday morning, according to TV station WLOS.

However, Pickle died as a result of his bravery, owner Tiffany Merrill said in a Facebook update. She told WNCN that the bear likely weighed 150 to 200 pounds and showed no fear of humans once it was inside her Black Mountain home.

“There was nothing I could do,” Merrill told WLOS. “I wanted to go out there and jump on the back of the bear and save my dog.”

The ordeal began just before 6 a.m. Friday, when she opened a door to let the dog out, Merrill wrote on Facebook.

“A bear come … in my house, my dog jumped in front of me to save my life,” she said in a series of posts. “The bear was right in my face…It jumped (on) my couch to try and get me.”

Merrill said she immediately began screaming for her children to close their doors, so the bear could not get into their rooms. “I thought I was going to die,” she said on Facebook.

Pickle saved her by first barking to distract the bear and then chasing it out of the house, she told WNCN.

However, once outside, the dog proved no match for the bear, she said. She says her 19-year-old son got the dog away from the bear, but it was too late.

Merrill rushed Pickle to an animal hospital for surgery, but the dog was too badly wounded, she said on Facebook. “My hero died saving me from a bear,” she wrote. “We lost a big part of our family.””

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https://www.greensboro.com/z-no-digital/when-a–pound-bear-entered-n-c-home-it/article_93347f24-b2e8-5503-b956-651b47475f9e.html