MISSOURI CITY, Texas — A Missouri City family is holding their little dog closer after a close call with a hawk.
And the whole thing was captured on video.
Twelve-week-old Lola was outside in the front yard in the Sienna subdivision. A red-tailed hawk suddenly swooped in and tried to grab the Chihuahua with its powerful talons.
“I didn’t even see it until it was right on top of her. That’s how fast it happened,” Kathryn Garver said. "There was nothing I could’ve done to have stopped it. Because I didn’t see it until it was already, she would’ve already been gone.”
Thankfully, Garver was just a few feet away and she saw the bird of prey try to grab her four-pound puppy.
“It felt like he was right there and just, it was so fast. It just happened so fast, and I honestly thought he had gotten her."
The hawk missed on its first attempt but might not have been ready to give up trying.
“I’m chasing her because she’s freaking out and so I grab her, and that’s whenever I see that he’s still in the tree," Garver said.
The Wildlife Center of Texas said hawk attacks are relatively rare but owners shouldn’t leave their pets outside alone.
“It’s a possibility that the hawk could’ve grabbed the dog and could’ve done some damage, possibly even killed the dog, but this is a very rare occurrence for hawks," said Brooke Yahney with the Wildlife Center of Texas.
She warns that predators come in many forms.
“All kinds of wildlife and also domestic pets, like if a large dog was off leash in the neighborhood, that’s obviously a threat for that small dog and that’s obviously more likely also," Yahney said.
It's a threat that Garver knows first-hand.
Her 14-year-old Chihuahua Cassie was killed last year by a neighbor's dog.
“She was at their fence barking and the other dog, from the hole that they had dug, reached in, grabbed her and took her, and mauled her to death," Garver said.
Garver was already protective of Lola and now, she said she’s never leaving her out of her sight.
