An eight-year-old Colorado boy is lucky to be alive, fighting off a mountain lion that had his head in its jaws.
Pike Carlson was playing with his older brother Gage outside when a mountain lion attacked the pair.
“I remember walking up and seeing this mountain lion on a rock,” Gage tells 9News. “Then I don’t really remember tumbling down the hill but I know I did.”
As Gage ran home to get their father, Ron Carlson, the lion grabbed Pike’s head in its jaws and began to drag the boy underneath a tree to eat him.
That’s when Gage fought back. Even at eight, Gage tells his father he knew to go for the animal’s eyes.
“I was punching, trying to grab anything I can, like a stick,” says Gage. “I did find a stick and tried to get it in the eye, but soon the stick snapped.”
His father arrived in time to see the lion release Gage and run away.
“When I first picked him up, I could see the whole side of his face was open,” says Carlson. “There was blood all over him. His scalp was ripped open in several spots. It was something that no parent should ever see.”
Gage survived, but suffered serious cuts to his face and a badly injured eyelid, though he can still see. He needed two surgeries and multiple stitches.
He has something to say for anyone who comes across a mountain lion.
“A mountain lion is a cheater!,” says Gage. “No one try to wrestle a mountain lion! It is a cheater!”
