A 75-year-old man says he saved a small dog from a hungry coyote by bashing the animal on its head with his flashlight.
Herbert Doran said he was taking his daughter's 11-year-old bichon frise, Jenna, out for a nighttime walk near his suburban home when the coyote appeared.
''I had just enough time to jerk Jenna's leash and step between them,'' Doran said Monday. ''He tried to get around me, and I could feel him brush my legs.
''When he went down to grab her by the neck, luckily I had my flashlight and I bopped him on the head. That stunned him, and he looked at me and I shone the light in his eyes and yelled at him.''
The coyote slowly backed off and left, he said.
Police found no trace of the coyote after the Thursday night episode. A police department official said he knew of no previous sightings in the village, about 30 miles north of Manhattan.
Coyotes have become more visible in the suburbs north of New York City, and one was captured in the city's Central Park earlier this year.
Happy news.com
