Man believes cougar stalked him
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VICTORIA, B.C. -- A Seattle man who survived a ferocious cougar attack in Canada says he is convinced the big cat was stalking him as he rode his bicycle down a dark road.
Speaking from a hospital Saturday, Jon Nostdal said he noticed a strange sound behind him as he cycled Thursday near the town of Port Alice on western Canada's Vancouver Island.
"It was becoming really regular, almost like fingernails on a Formica surface," said Nostdal, a 52-year-old boat captain. "In retrospect, I realized I was hearing the claws of the cat following me."
The cougar attacked Nostdal from behind and knocked him off his bicycle, tearing at his scalp and face.
"My backpack and my jacket rode up my shoulders and protected the back of my neck," said Nostdal. "I don't think there's any question the knapsack saved my life."
Nostdal said he fought the cougar for several minutes before a paper-mill worker, Elliot Cole, drove by and spotted him.
"At first I thought he had fallen off the bike," Cole was quoted as saying by the Victoria Times Colonist newspaper. "He was sitting in the road and the bike was down and there was blood all over his face."
Cole said he hit the cougar with a gym bag full of book binders, punched it and tried to pin the cat under the bicycle.
The men said they then jumped in Cole's truck and sped off. Local authorities said they have not seen the cougar since.
Nostdal runs a boat service between Port Alice and Washington state, Canadian Press news agency reported.