Posted on 01/26/2007 8:04:16 AM PST by rface
A woman saved her husband’s life by clubbing a mountain lion that attacked him while the couple were hiking in a California state park.
Jim and Nell Hamm, who will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next month, were in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park when the lion pounced.
“He didn’t scream. It was a different, horrible plea for help, and I turned around, and by then the cat had wrestled Jim to the ground,” Mrs Hamm said from the hospital where her husband was recovering from a torn scalp, puncture wounds and other injuries.
After the attack, game wardens closed the park, about 320 miles north of San Francisco, and released dogs to track the lion. They later shot a pair of lions found near the trail where the attack happened.
The carcasses were flown to a state forensics lab to determine if either animal mauled the man.
Although the Hamms were experienced hikers, neither had seen a mountain lion before Mr Hamm, 70, was mauled, his wife said.
Mrs Hamm said she grabbed a four-inch-wide log and beat the animal with it, but it would not release its hold on her husband’s head.
“Jim was talking to me all through this, and he said, ’I’ve got a pen in my pocket and get the pen and jab him in the eye’,” she said. “So I got the pen and tried to put it in his eye, but it didn’t want to go in as easy as I thought it would.”
When the pen bent and became useless, Mrs Hamm went back to using the log. The lion eventually let go and, with blood on its nose, stood staring at her. She screamed and waved the log until the animal left.
“She saved his life, there is no doubt about it,” said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game.
Mrs Hamm, 65, said she was scared to leave her dazed and bleeding husband alone, so the couple walked a quarter of a mile to a trail head, where she gathered branches to protect them if more lions came. They waited until a ranger came and summoned help.
“My concern was to get Jim out of there,” she said. “I told him, ’Get up, get up, walk’, and he did.”
Mr Hamm was said to be in a fair condition today. He had to have his lips stitched back together and underwent surgery for lacerations on his head and body.
I guess we're different then... I trust my wife's judgment, and you don't trust yours.
Love that hip action! Great response, the visual is great. LOL
LOL.
Curious drive-home point. Nice hijack. :-)
I must have missed the gun-control message in Giuliani's presidential platform. Could you give me a link to that?
Wowser! Thanks for the ping.
Amazing how love can overcome our fears.
Way to go lady! Although kanawa would have cut the lions heart out with his trusty knife, looked the cat in the eye and taken a big bloody bite out of the beasts heart, you did the best you could do with a log.
Makes me despise the cowardly doctor who watched his wife be eaten by a black bear even more.
My friend, I and his wife watched a Dateline or some other idiot show where they interviewed a "man" about having a rapist with a gun slip into their bedroom and having to watch him rape his wife and the "grief" he and his wife were going through.
His wife said "Oh that's so sad" in unison we were in a tirade about the "poor guy" (We're both about a 10 on the MAN scale), the rapist comes into my bedroom he better come in shooting, because even if does manage to get a shot off if it doesn't kill me immediately he will die by his own gun, the blunt end, a bullet would be too good for him.
I remember a funny dinner conversation with us and our women where some life threatening situation came up, he and I had plans (most of them similar) already thought out for every situation they started questioning us with.
They were amazed, is this what you guys think about??? "Yeah, pretty much, in between thinking about sex, steaks, money, etc."
"The husband cracks me up, really.... "Honey, reach in my pocket and see if you can't poke this thing in the eye with that pen I've got!"
Any man that loves his wife would have said "Honey, get the hell out of here quick........I Love You.....GO NOW!"
This guy seemed to be inviting the already Pi$$ed off cat to turn on his wife while she tried to poke out the lion's eye with a pen! What the heck would a man need an ink pen for while hiking in the deep woods? At the very minimum they should have been carrying a pocket knife.
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You can read some of my earlier posts on this thread how I feel about some "men".
I don't classify this guy in that category at all. They've been married 50 years, for better or worse. Either one would do the same for each other and there is no way either one would leave the other in that situation, they're a team and they're going to live together or die together.
"Curious drive-home point. Nice hijack."
No hijack intended.
See post 81 ecurbh tagline & personal page.
Maybe this will help.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1774286/posts
Thus, ending her life in the process, instead of going to seek help.
Only thing wrong is, in this story, she didn't die. She saved them both. She was not useless, and who knows how far away some other choice in help might have been.
I swear, in a world where too many can't function without help from others, a couple of people go out in the woods and fight off a lion, and some FReepers have to find a problem with it.
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Amen.
I guess us dog lovers have a stronger sense of loyalty :)
No, his *current* platform of things he'd do as President.
Things that were issues in NYC years ago don't translate to things that will be issues nationwide now.
Tell ya what... ping me to some new thread on Rudy, or I'll ping you and we can take it there.
Seems a little outta place on a thread about a cougar. :-)
22LR Hollow points, automatic, with 17 round clip. Its light and will kill most animals.
When your darning kitty jumps up onto your bed every morning it is just checking to see if you are dead yet.
This is getting crazy with the protected species acts here in MN, timberwolf populations are the largest in the country now. So we got black bears, timberwolves, and mountain lions venturing into urban areas looking for food.
I will consider. Lightweight is good.
Thanks
I keep a .32 Seecamp in my pocket (Winchester Silvertips, of course), but I usually hike along with a nice sharp machete in my hand. It just feels natural to me to hike that way.
Somebody got eaten back in 2000.
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