GRAFTON, N.H. — A New Hampshire woman is praising her dog after helping her escape a bear attack. Tracey Colburn says she was taking her dog outside on Saturday night when a massive bear was standing at her front door.
“You know how you freeze because you can’t believe what you’re looking at it. It takes a second to register,” Coburn said.
She says after being stunned to see the animal at her front door, the incident quickly turned violent. Coburn’s dog, Kai tried to chase the bear away. The animal lunged after Coburn and clawed her on the front porch.
“It was very, very angry and just you know, aggressive. Very aggressive.” ” I’m just really lucky I’m alive because when I fell, it went after me. I said, ‘I’m gonna die’.”
She said her dog finally scared the bear off and a neighbor called 911.
“She had her hand wrapped in towels and shirts and I quickly cut away to assess the damage and called my crew immediately,” said conservation officer Tom Dakai.
Coburn says she’s glad her injuries weren’t that bad.
“I have a bunch of stitches,” she said.
Officials believe the bear probably smelled Coburn’s pot roast dinner and wandered to her house. Conservation officers stress violent attacks are very rare.
“In my 20 years of working for the department, it’s the first one that I’ve personally dealt with and I’ve heard of very few others over the years that I could count on one hand,” Dakai said.
Fish and game officials will try to lure the bear to a trap by using donuts. They say the animal is too dangerous to be roaming around. Coburn is just thankful her dog came to her defense. The attack is still under investigation.
