Colorado 8-year-old survives mountain lion attack

(KUSA) – When a 65-pound mountain lion attacked 8-year-old Pike Carlson in the back yard of his Colorado home, he knew he had to fight back.

“I was just punching, trying to grab anything that I can, like a stick,” Pike said. “I did find a stick and I tried to get it in the eye but soon the stick snapped.”

Pike was playing with his older brother Gage when the attack happened. The Carlson family lives in a rural, mountainous area near Bailey, but they said they had never seen a mountain lion around their home before.

As Gage ran into the home to tell his parents what happened, the boy’s dad, Ron Carlson, ran out to help.

“That parental instinct to protect your child kind of kicks in,” Ron Carlson said. “It never even entered my head that I was about to tangle with something that could kill me. All you know is you have to do something. It doesn’t matter what happens to you, you’ve got to protect your children.”

The mountain lion had grabbed Pike by the head and dragged him under a tree. As Pike tried to yell for help, he also tried to fight it off.

“He told me ‘Dad, all animals have a vulnerable spot, their eyeballs,'” Ron Carlson said. “So he picked up a stick that was underneath the tree and was reaching back trying to poke it in the eye.”