A Florida woman managed to fend off a bear and save her small dog — with nothing but a bag of cookies.
Kristen Savage was out walking her 13-pound chihuahua mix, Ringo, near her home in the Markham Woods area of Sanford when the unexpected happened. She heard a bird and glanced up into the trees — only to feel something brush her leg. At first, she thought it was a loose dog. But then she saw “a giant head.”
It was a black bear.
The bear seemed particularly interested in Ringo. “I hauled him like a piñata in the air and spun around to get away,” Savage told local news outlets. In the process of trying to protect her dog, she fell, scraping her legs and hands. At one point, she said, the bear even had Ringo in its mouth briefly.
“There was a moment I didn’t think we were going to get out of this,” she recalled. “There was no one around to help.”
Savage said she waved her arms and screamed to distract the bear, which worked temporarily. But as soon as she stopped moving, the bear charged again.
That’s when she remembered something in her hand — a bag of cookies her mom had just handed her for her kids.
In a desperate move, she smacked the bear in the face with the cookies and then threw the bag at it. The bear paused and began sniffing the bag — giving Savage just enough time to grab Ringo and run to safety.
“She stopped for a minute and sniffed the cookies,” she said. “As soon as she was distracted, we ran to the front door.”
Fortunately, neither Savage nor Ringo were seriously injured.
According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the bear was a mother with cubs in the area. Savage even had previous photos of the bear nursing cubs in her backyard.
Despite the frightening experience, Savage said she didn’t blame the animal. “I’m sure she was just as scared as I was,” she said. “As a mom, I would do anything to protect my babies, and I’m sure she was doing the same.”
The FWC reminded residents that black bears are normally shy but can become bold when food is involved. They advised the public to secure trash and avoid attracting bears with food.
Savage now says she’ll be extra cautious moving forward. “I think it’s important to always have something with you that can scare them off — like an air horn or spray,” she said. “And always pay attention to your surroundings.”
