Good going Dad
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VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) -- A 4 1/2-year-old boy who survived a cougar attack while on a family camping trip at a remote Vancouver Island park is mad at the big cat, his father said Wednesday.
The boy, Paul Daniel Krismer, knows he was ambushed by a cougar, but has no sense of how close he came to losing his life, said his father, Paul Krismer.
"He thinks it's a bad cat that made a bad choice," the father said. "I honestly don't think he has a whole lot of sense about his own mortality."
Instead, he said his son is living the life of a typical 4-year-old.
"You wipe out on your bike one day and a cougar attacks you the next," Krismer said. "Then you fall off the swings the day after that. It's just another thing that happens."
Krismer, 38, said he knew he was dealing with a life-and-death situation when he turned and saw the cougar grab his son's head in its jaws.
"I heard this cracking in the bushes and I looked back and I could see this cougar leaping at Paul and just getting his jaws set on Paul's head," he said in an interview.
"Then they fell to the ground together."
Krismer, who was about 20 yards (meters) away, said he sprinted to his son, who was on the ground with the cougar, and jumped with both feet on top of the cat.
"I just leaped off a log which was at a height over the two of them ... and came down very forcefully on the cougar's chest with both feet," he said.
That caused the cougar to release the boy and flee into the bushes, Krismer said.
The Krismers were camping at Schoen Lake Provincial Park, in the north of Vancouver Island.
Krismer said his son was treated at a hospital for bite wounds to his head and scratches to his upper body.
"We were lucky for sure. It could have been over in seconds," he said. "Instead, my son has some not-so-bad cuts. I can't even say it was really nasty cuts."~~~~~~
Dad Saves Son
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