Say what you want about the women in Florida… but you can’t say they aren’t resourceful.
Often times, the headlines focus on the men in Florida. You’ve probably clicked on plenty of “Florida man” stories before… I know I have. But occasionally, the crazy stories swing towards the females of the Sunshine State, and Florida resident Kristen Savage certainly has a wild story to tell after her close encounter with an aggressive bear.
Savage told WESH 2 that she was walking her dog, Ringo, just steps away from her Sanford, Florida home. Relaxed and with her guard down because she was only feet away from her front door, the Florida woman was stunned when she discovered that a bear was closing in on herself and her dog:
“The bear snuck up behind me, went around my leg, and started biting at my dog. I was hanging him like a piñata basically in the air, but every time I put my dog down on the ground, she would go after him again.”
The Florida woman says that everything happened incredibly fast, and that her dog was in the mother bear’s mouth at one point. Shaken by what was unfolding, and doing her best to save her dog’s life, Savage fell down to the ground. Fortunately, her instincts kicked in seconds later:
“That’s when I started to panic because I’m on the ground, I’m in a vulnerable position. My brain was like, ‘Get up and get big,’ so I did start waving my hands and screaming at her, and stepping towards the bear. She did back off, but the second I took a break from that, she sprinted right at us again.”
Smart of the Florida woman to try and get big to intimidate the bear. It worked for a moment, but then the bear kept coming, and Savage knew she had to do something else.
Low and behold, Savage’s mother had just handed her a bag of cookies minutes before the bear attack happened. The Florida woman decided to weaponize the sweet treats before she eventually threw them away from herself and her dog Ringo. Luckily, the mother bear became more interested in the cookies, and Savage and her pooch were able to get back inside the house.
The Florida woman says she learned a lot from the scary situation:
“I kind of feel bad, but I smacked the bear across the face with a bag of cookies and I threw them at her face. I think it’s an important lesson to always have something on you that can scare them away, like an air horn or a spray. And just pay attention to your surroundings.”
Wildlife officials say that bear encounters are more likely to happen in the spring, when mother bears are protecting their cubs. That’s what this female bear was apparently doing when she attacked, and though Savage was terrified by the mama bear’s actions, she later told the news outlet that she can sympathize with a mother trying to do what’s best for her kids.
Miraculously, Ringo the dog was unharmed during the attack, and Kristen Savage only suffered some minor scrapes and bruises. Just goes to show that Florida women – and they’re little dogs – can be pretty tough cookies (pun intended).
