Hero Dog Who Defended California Owner From Mountain Lion Passes Away

Fierce Belgian shepherd, Eva, is a heroic dog who saved her owner's life bravely from a mountain lion and tragically passed away after suffering from a fractured skull in the attack.

Eva suffered fatal injuries after she saved her owner and died after suffering from several seizures according to posts on her owner's Instagram.

The post read: 'We said goodbye at 9:20 this morning.

'There were no changes to her condition overnight. Goodbye my beautiful sweet girl.

'You are my world, my light, my best friend. The world is a much darker place.' 

Erin Wilson, 24, avoided close escape from death after she was mauled by a mountain lion on a Northern California trail on May 16 thanks to Eva, who suffered serious injuries helping stave off the attack.

Wilson shared that she was hiking with her pet dog Eva on the Big Bar Pass on May 16 in the rural Trinity River area of Northern California when the wild cat attacked her.

Wilson told the Sacramento Bee. that Eva was not on a leash and was a few yards ahead of her when they started a hike. Her pickup truck was still in sight on Highway 299 when she was confronted by the growling predator, 

The fierce beast lunged at her and swiped at her left shoulder scratching through her jacket.

'I will never be able to live up to how amazing and loyal she is to me,' Wilson said at the time.

'I yelled 'Eva!' and she came running,'  the 24-year-old hiker said. 'And she hit the cat really hard.'

Wilson said that the mountain lion appeared to be emaciated, but still out-classed the 55-pound Belgian malinois, who is 2 and half years old.

'They fought for a couple seconds, and then I heard her start crying,' Wilson said.

According to Wilson the deadly lion had sunk its fangs into Eva's head and held on it as Wilson tired to beat off the cougar with her fists, rocks, sticks and what ever else she could find. The hiker even tried gouging the cat's eyes.

The mountain lion fended the owner off with its back paws.

'They battled for a few moments until I heard her cry,' Wilson said on the crowd funding site GoFundMe. 'The cat had her by the left side of her head. For the next several minutes I tried everything I could to free her. '

Wilson ran to her car to fetch a tire iron to beat the creature with and flagged down a driver, Sharon Houston.

Houston, a self-described 'overprepared' camp counselor said Wilson was 'pretty scrapped up.'

There were few other drivers on the road and Big Bar is so remote that there is no cell phone service in most area. 

Wilson told her that 'a mountain lion had just attacked her dog and she wanted to know if I had a weapon–which I didn't other than my little pepper spray,'  Houston told the blog Redheaded Blackbelt.

'She was very determined to stop this mountain lion from attacking her dog so I couldn't leave her,' the passerby said.

Houston said after more beating on the creature, it let go of the dog and turned its attention back to both women.

The cougar 'swiped at us and bared its teeth' Houston told the blog.

'I opened up my pepper spray and just hosed its face,' Houston told the blog. 'It was the longest 5 to 10 seconds…I begged, 'Please work, please work, please work.' 

After blast of chemical mace the cougar ran off.

'I think it's safe to assume that dog probably saved her life,' Capt. Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told The Sacramento Bee. 

It was a frantic trip to the vet's clinic about an hour away, Eva began having convulsing spells half way through the drive.

'I didn't think she'd make it every time it started up,' Wilson said.

The Malinois suffered two skull fractures, a punctured skull cavity and sever swelling around the left eye, which blocks her vision.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife are investigating the attack, collecting DNA samples from the dog's wounds and will try to catch the cougar, officials said.

Attacks on humans by mountain lions are rare - there have been 20 such incidents in California since 1986, three fatal.

Authorities state that if they do catch the animal, it will be put down.

'My dog is my hero and I owe her my life,' she said.