Most of us spend our lives understanding that there is a certain order to nature. We have prey and we have predators, and some predators, like big cats in the wild, sit at the top of the chain, feared by all.
So when a big honking mountain lion, also known as a cougar or a puma, shows up on your property, it’s normal to be concerned—especially if you have pets that spend time outside. Most people would find themselves sweating a bit if a cougar showed up at their door, even with a thick pane of glass between them and the big kitty. Most animals would, too, if they understood the danger of what they were looking at.
But Dash the tiny doggo is not most animals.
Dash is delighting the masses with his reaction to a mountain lion that paid his house a visit in Colorado recently. In a video shared by Sarah Bole on Facebook and then reshared on Twitter, Dash sits right up against the glass door, cool as a cucumber, as the cougar approaches. Even when the lion taps the glass with its formidable paw, Dash stands his ground, totally unfazed. While you can hear the panic in his human’s voice, Dash just sits there wagging his tail.
“I came home from work tonight and walked to see this on the patio. Watch the whole thing as the lion taps the glass. Pardon my language and shaking voice. I was shitting my pants.” – Sarah Bolepic.twitter.com/tKpfNLoJbY— Reesus Patriot (@Reesus Patriot)
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Is Dash a brave badass? Is he lonely and thought he’d found a new friend? Is he terrified on the inside but playing it cool to protect his castle? Who knows?
There’s so much to love here. It’s the tail wag. And the casual stare as the cat approaches. And then the “I’m not looking at you, I’m just staring out the window” bit. And then the barking and growling that only came after the cougar walked away. Absolutely hilarious.
Dash is a friggin’ hero. His poor human was distraught, and Dash just exuded calm confidence that that cougar was not gonna get him. His human kept telling him to get back, and he was absolutely not having it. You can almost hear him saying, “Shush, human! I’ve got this.”
You do got this, Dash. Clearly. That cougar didn’t even know what to do with you. If you can’t beat a predator, confuse them to make them think you’re not prey, right?
(Also, let’s hope that owner had those door handles locked and considers changing to a round doorknob instead. The only real danger here is if kitty cat had reached up and pulled down on the lever of the door handle, which domestic cats have been known to figure out how to to do.)
Now we just need to give the little puppers a neckerchief that says, “Dash don’t dash.”
Or maybe just “Here kitty kitty.”