“Bruce came barreling through kind of sideways. There was blood on the dog door. I thought, ‘What the heck is going on,’ opened the side door, and as soon as I opened the door I knew what happened,” he recalled Thursday. “A mountain lion was standing there about five feet away.”

Young figures the lion was a male weighing in at around 150 pounds. He said he tried to ward off the lion before tending to his dog.

“I threw my hands up, started yelling and clapping my hands as hard as I could. He just stared at me for a second or two, then trotted off,” he said. “I don’t think I scared him, but I did startle him when I threw the door open. If I hadn’t [opened the door], I think he might’ve tried to come right in through the dog door—Bruce was that close to the house when he got grabbed.”

The dog suffered puncture wounds below the ear and on the forehead, along with another forehead laceration. Young said his wife, a vet tech at the Sun Valley Animal Center, was able to make sure the cat hadn’t punctured Bruce’s skull. She treated the dog’s wounds that night, and got him on antibiotics and pain medication.

“The lion grabbed him by the head, but Bruce evidently rolled out of the [headlock] and [the lion] couldn’t quite grab ahold. He’s a blockhead, strong as a brick,” Young said. “He’s doing good now, but is still pretty scared to go outside. It was definitely traumatic.”

As a 59-year resident of the Wood River Valley, Young said he’s no stranger to living alongside mountain lions, but still had some concerns about neighbors with small kids. He added that he was thankful his 5-year-old granddaughter was in the house at the time of the attack, and plans to accompany Bruce on all bathroom breaks going forward.

“I would just say, if you have pets or small children, keep an eye on them and stay close—that would be my warning,” he said. “Every year we have game come down, elk and deer, and the lions are just following that.”

Young recalled that a similar incident happened 20 years ago when his Australian shepherd and White German shepherd got tangled up with a mountain lion on his porch. Both dogs survived.

“My Australian shepherd got bitten about four times and required stitches. The lion had her pinned down in the yard. Then my white German shepherd came running around the house and jumped into the middle—she got slashed pretty good and also ended up with stitches,” he said.

Despite witnessing both attacks on family companions, Young said he didn’t want to see the lion “trapped or destroyed.”

“All they’re doing is trying to survive like the rest of us,” he said.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has urged Hailey residents to be hypervigilant and aware of their surroundings since December, said regional spokesman Terry Thompson, especially during early morning and evening hours when mountain lions are typically more active.

On the evening of Dec. 13, a small 5-year-old Dachshund-chihuahua mix survived after a large mountain lion sprang on him from underneath a car and slashed the dog’s flank. The attack occurred in the Sherwood Forest subdivision, between the China Gardens and Della View subdivisions in west Hailey.

A large female lion accompanied by two kittens were documented traipsing through a backyard on Robinhood Drive one day later.

According to Fish and Game regional Supervisor Craig White, the department takes mountain lion attacks very seriously and uses the information to keep the community safe, not to euthanize animals.

“We hear reports that some in our communities advise against calling Fish and Game when a mountain lion or black bear is seen in a neighborhood or becomes involved in some type of conflict, because there is a perception that calling will always result in animals being euthanized,” White previously stated. “That statement is not true.

“Our goal is not to remove predators like mountain lions and bears from the landscape, but instead to encourage them to continue to live in natural habitats, outside of our communities. Fish and Game has options to deter wildlife, such as hazing, only resorting to lethal removal if an animal has become aggressive when living among people and is determined to be a threat to public safety.”