One North Texas family still can’t believe the frightening, wild cat encounter they went through last month.
The Asberry family was sitting around at their Frisco, Texas home on Easter Sunday when disaster struck. Their family time quickly turned into panic when Claudia Asberry watched a bobcat jump over their privacy fence and snatch up their family dog – a 6-pound Yorkshire terrier named Ariel.
The Texas residents couldn’t believe it. Seconds before, they heard their little Yorkie barking at what they assumed was their neighbor’s dog (as she often does). But when Claudia Asberry went to further investigate, she was shocked to see that her furry friend was being pinned down by a wild animal.
A home surveillance camera caught Asberry’s reaction in real time as the bobcat carried off Ariel the Yorkie by the neck.
Claudia can be heard in the video screaming bloody murder as she watched her pet get carried off, and she immediately feared the worst. But she didn’t give up, and as she told 5 NBCDFW, she did all she could to save her beloved Yorkie:
“I threw the closest thing I could think of — it was the puff bag — at the fence, and my son-in-law came out running immediately behind me. He jumped on top of the fence, and the bobcat dropped her because he had to jump pretty deep.”
Against all odds, Ariel the Yorkie survived the attack. She had three deep wounds to her neck and one more in her stomach, and the vet was able to get all of those stitched up. The tough-as-nails dog is now recovering from the attack… as are Claudia Asberry and her family. They still can’t believe that the wild cat was fearless enough to go right up next to their house with all of them standing just on the other side of the glass inside the house.
The surveillance video is as shocking as you would imagine, and journalist Matt Howerton described the situation that played out in the footage like this:
It’s great to see that Ariel the Yorkie is doing okay after that scary incident.
If you are a pet owner in an area where bobcats live and are often spotted, it wouldn’t hurt to be more alert about the safety of your pets. The Asberry family would have never thought that a wild cat would have been an issue with the fencing that they had put up, and quickly learned about the jumping prowess of a bobcat (they’ve been known to jump as high as 10 to 12 feet in the air).
