Yes, you read the headline right, a metal water bottle helped to save a child’s life. A family was hiking in Washington state when a cougar attacked a five year-old boy. His mother immediately started 
to use her metal water bottle to beat the wild cat off of her son. Thankfully, the cougar eventually let go and retreated into the background and the boy is going to make a full recovery.
While reading the story, I was creeped out about the part that the cougar stalked the family for the rest of their hour-long hike back to the vehicle. I can only imagine that the cougar was waiting for the little guy to be separated from his family (he was with his mom at the time of the attack with sister and dad up ahead).
My kids often go hiking and we do have cougars in the area. We actually call them mountain lions but according to a Discovery Channel show I watched about a year ago, cougars and mountain lions are the same thing (basically). We are cognizant of the remote chance that a mountain lion could attack and so we make sure the kids stay relatively close to us. The story still gave me chills, though!
Photo by Robert Couse-Baker
