Lynx attacks leashed dog

A woman living in an apartment complex in Thunder Bay took her dog Molly out to do her business and as she was reaching for the apartment door to go back inside she felt the leash go taut. She turned around to see a ball of fur covering her dog. Nowell Sleep is the dog owner and she reacted quickly enough to save her dog Molly.

She explained during an interview on WTIP that she lunged toward the lynx, grabbed it by the front legs, shook the lynx until it released Molly from its mouth and then she shoved the lynx away. She then swooped the dog up into her arms and hustled into the entryway of her apartment building. She turned around to look outside and saw the lynx staring back at her.

Nowell took her dog Molly to the emergency vet and thankfully Molly escaped major injury. She ended up with eight puncture wounds around her head, neck and face, some graze wounds and a black eye. The attack happened on the evening of February 19th and at the time of the interview, Thursday, February 22 she was recovering at home and doing well.

Molly is about the same size dog as Rugby is, around fourteen pounds. Nowell encouraged people to keep their pets on a leash because if she hadn’t had her dog on a leash the lynx would have ran off with her probably never to be seen again.

She wasn’t aware there was a lynx in her neighborhood in Thunder Bay. Since the attack she has seen tracks around the building. She said before the attack she didn’t hear or see anything so people should be hyper aware of their surroundings if there’s a chance there’s a lynx around.

We haven’t had any lynx attack pets in Cook County that I am aware of.  We have had a number of wolf attacks on dogs but none that I know of recently. I know it’s a risk having a pet where we live but I guess I never imagined a lynx would be a threat.  It just goes to show you if an animal is hungry enough it will go anywhere and do anything for its next meal.