A dog named “Honey” put an apex predator in its place.
The Martinez family lives in Cordova, New Mexico, and they have nearly 100 farm animals on their property, including 60 chickens. They also have a number of dogs that live on the farm and keep watch over some of the more vulnerable animals, and a 12-year-old canine (that’s also partially blind) recently put her life on the line to protect the farm.
Denise Martinez, the matriarch of the family, told KOB 4 that the dogs they have play a truly important role on their family land:
“The dogs have become the caretakers of the land, of the family, of the animals.”
And back on March 3, that certainly rang true.
The family heard a lot of barking and commotion that night, and figured that their guard dogs were hard at work. Their 12-year-old dog, Honey, was busy fending off what is assumed to be a bear. When the Martinez family got up the next morning, they found Honey in the driveway, suffering from severe injuries to her neck.
Leanna Martinez, the daughter of Denise and Darren, was actually the one that discovered Honey clinging on to life:
“Her face was swollen on the left, so I turned her head like to the right, and that’s when I saw, like her whole neck was just ripped from the back all the way down.”
From all of the scratches on nearby trees and fences, as well as the injuries that Honey suffered, they were fairly certain that their half-blind dog had stood up against a bear to protect some of the family’s farm animals. The family was distraught, and Darren Martinez couldn’t believe how rough Honey looked:
“It was just devastating. You know, I never thought I would ever see our dog in that shape.”
The Martinez family rushed Honey to an emergency vet, and when the prices they were quoted for Honey’s care were too steep, they switched to Española Humane’s clinic (a lower-cost urgent animal care in the area). Specialists there were able to care for the dog and stitch up her open wound, and hooked her up with bandages and medicine. Honey has returned to the clinic often to have the gauze around her neck replaced.
Denise Martinez and the Martinez family are grateful that Honey is recovering, and they’ve been rolling out a new nickname for the family pet ever since she stood toe-to-toe with a bear:
“She protected our chickens and our family… she’s our little savior. She’s been nicknamed the bear slayer, and we’ve just come to find out that the bear slayer is afraid of the vacuum cleaner.”
Sounds about right. A vicious bear? No worries. A vacuum cleaner? That’s a dog’s worst nightmare.
But what a story, right? On paper, this matchup should have easily gone in the bear’s favor. However, Honey stood strong, and protected her family, and sent the bear running away empty handed (guess I should say empty pawed?). Remember… it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
You can check out the local news story about Honey below:
