A few weeks after Brock Schell and family saved Bam from near certain death, the one and a half year old pit bull cross may have saved Schell from a nasty fate.
While shoveling his driveway in Bevearly earlier this month Schell could hear the usually timid Bam barking up a storm. At first he thought Bam was playing with the other family dog, but soon realized it was something much more sinister.
"I came walking up and it looked at me and I could see the round head and ears," Schell recalled Thursday, standing in the driveway where the close encounter occurred. "I'm taking in the tail and I stopped dead - the spike of fear went right up my spine."
What Schell saw, just metres away from where he was standing, was an adult cougar. Sightings of the big cats on the rural areas just west of Prince George aren't unheard of, but are certainly rare.
Schell immediately knew the danger the predatory feline posed, but since the cougar was standing between him and his house he decided to retreat back to his car.
Shortly after Schell's wife Toni returned home and the car spooked the cougar, which leapt up on to a ridge and ran away. No one from the family has seen it since.
"It was intense for a few minutes until I was sure it wasn't around," he said.
Schell's credits Bam not only for alerting him to the cougar's presence, but also distracting the cat enough to allow him to get to safety. He suspects the cat may have been after the dog in the first place, but given the lethal skill set cougars possess he wasn't taking any chances.
Schell thinks Bam is likely an American bulldog/pit bull cross, although he's not certain of the dog's lineage. The family have had three pit bulls in the past, so they're familiar with the breed that had a bad reputation for being aggressive.
Yet, Schell said Bam's desire to protect their owners is an undervalued breed characteristic.
"I think if people really understood these breeds, they'd understand it's in their nature, it's in their breed, to be very protective of their companions," he said. "[Our other two pit bulls] were the same, they'd never hurt a fly but they were always very protective."
Bam had only come into the Schell family in October when they agreed to foster him from the North Cariboo division of the B.C. SPCA. Shell worked with the shy dog to improve his social skills and coached him for some meetings with prospective adoptive families.
When no one was willing to take Bam in permanently and the decree came down that Bam was to be destroyed, Schell and his family quickly decided that they would welcome Bam into their home for good.
"In the first three or four days that we had him, I had to sit on the floor for him to come near me," he said. "Once he realized he was OK and he was safe, he tried to crawl up on my lap and we started snuggling a little bit more."
The Schell family have long supported getting rescue dogs and Brock said he encourages others in the community to support the SPCA in any way they can.
As time has gone on Bam has warmed up more and more to the family and Schell is certainly grateful to have him in his own.
But dog or not at his side, he's going to be a bit more wary about clearing the driveway after dusk knowing that the cougar could still be lurking.
