On September 3rd, a five year old boy was attacked by a mountain lion. The Canadian boy was hiking in Northport, Washington with his family, when the cougar jumped out from the brush and pounced on the boy. Dawn Manning, the mom, said that her seven year old daughter and her husband were walking about 50 meters ahead of her and her son, Simon, when she saw him stumble from the corner of her eye. They were reaching down picking huckelberries and eating them, when the cougar got the boy. Dawn said she looked over and all she saw was the cougar hold Simon by the head. The mother started hitting the cougar with her water bottle and screaming to scare it. Her husband finally looked back and thought she was stung by something, when he saw her hitting something.The cougar finally ran off, leaving Simon there. I would be so scared even if I wasn't being the one attacked. I wonder what was going through the little boy's head. Crazy things happen, man. They covered his head with a hoodie and began to worry if the cougar would continue to stock them. The family was 2 hours into the trail and tried to get to the car as soon as possible. Simon had blood everywhere and never screamed or cried or anything. I don't know how he didn't do anything. I guess it probably happened all so fast. The dad ran to the car and drove the family to the Canadian border to get to the hospital. While they were trying to get out of the Colville National Forest, the family stayed close together, making a lot of noise to keep other animals away including the cougar. When they reached the border, the guards made sure they got to the hospital quickly and safely. The boy was rushed to the hospital for severe head injuries.The boy was released from the hospital and is expected to make a ful recovery. Dawn Manning still doesn't believe that all of this happened to Simon. She said that it's just too much to comprehend. I would be so scared to go out hiking again after that happened. She is just very grateful it wasn't anything worse. Game officials said that they are trying to track the cougar down so they will be able to kill it. When they began searching, they found footprints and the mom's water bottle by each other. That would give me chills if I were them. I hope that they find the cougar, so it doesn't attack anymore people.
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