65-year-old Nell Hamm and her 70-year-old husband Jim were hiking in Humboldt County CA when a mountain lion pounced on Jim and clamped its jaws on his head. Nell was able to fight of the mountain lion and take her husband to safety.
Jim Hamm, who was trying to tear at the face of the cat, told his wife to grab a pen from his pocket and stab the cat in the eyes. She did, but the pen broke.
“That lion never flinched,” she said. “I just knew it was going to kill him.”
Nell Hamm picked up the branch again and this time slammed it butt-end into the cat’s snout. The lion had ignored her until then. Finally, she had its attention. The cat stepped back, and glared at her with its ears pinned back.
“I thought he was going to attack me,” she said.
Instead, the cat slipped into the ferns and disappeared.
Previously on Boing Boing:
• Zoo lion kills man who thought God would protect him
• Mule vs mountain lion