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Whitecourt — William Gibb didn’t know what was thrashing around in the dark, clawing at his dog, but he was going to save his pet.

The electrical subcontractor from Red Deer was driving northwest with his brother Thomas on Boxing Day to get to work in Grande Prairie. About 6:30 p.m., they stopped at a Tim Hortons in Whitecourt to meet a friend for coffee.

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Gibb let his two dogs out of his truck for a bathroom break near a wooded area at the back of a parking lot, and it wasn’t long before he heard one of them crying in pain.

He quickly ran into the trees, where his five-year-old husky Sasha was on the ground.

“I saw this thing on top of her,” said the 31-year-old. “So I ran over and punched it in the head, thinking maybe it was a coyote or something.”

When the animal jumped off, Gibb said, he realized it was a cougar.

“I backed it up into a tree and was swinging at it some more and screaming for my brother and my buddy, Travis, to come over and get the dogs.”

He saw Sasha bleeding and twitching on the ground and scooped her up but she bit him on the hand, thinking he was the cat, he said. When the dog later recognized her owner, she ran off.

Gibb continued to fight the cat.

“I was still throwing punches toward the cougar. The cougar was kind of pawing back at me.”