A woman in the Huson area warded off a charging black bear with a garden fresh zucchini early Thursday after the 200-pound bruin attacked her dog and swiped at the woman's leg.

The woman was not seriously injured during the attack, which occurred around midnight behind her home near Sorrel Springs Lane and Roman Creek Road, but she was badly shaken, said Lt. Rich Maricelli of the Missoula County Sheriff's Office. Her 12-year-old border collie, Brin, also appears to be doing fine.

"She was terrified, and understandably so, " Maricelli said. "This could have really been a bad deal. Just imagine what might have happened if that thing had made its way into her house."

That worst-case scenario doesn't require a leap of the imagination, Maricelli said. The woman reported the bear had its head and one paw through the threshold of her back door when she threw the squash at it.

The woman told authorities she had just let her three dogs outside and was standing on a cement patio in her small yard when the bear came racing down a hill. The bear pounced on Brin and began aggressively rolling the dog around on the ground, "growling and acting ferrocious," Maricelli said. The woman yelled and screamed at the bear, and finally kicked the animal in the throat.