‘She’s my guardian angel’: Woman trampled by moose says her dog gave its life to save hers

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU/Gray News) - An Anchorage woman says her dog helped save her life when a moose attacked them in a park last week.

Barb Ashton said her elderly dog gave its life to save hers.

According to Ashton, the ordeal started while she was walking with her sister and her 15-year-old dog Daisy Friday evening in Kincaid Park when they encountered a moose and calf on the trail.

Due to a previous cancer diagnosis, Daisy was being assisted with a harness.

“We were pretty vigilant as we were going,” Ashton said. “We’d gotten to a straight stretch of trail … we were on one side of the trail and the moose and the calf on the other side.”

Ashton said that the moose immediately flattened its ears and its hackles went up. That is when she said the three of them attempted to run away.

But she turned around to see Daisy being attacked by the moose.

“She didn’t even know the moose was behind her; she was also deaf, and I started screaming at the moose,” Ashton said.

That is when Ashton said the moose turned and began attacking her. When the moose started trampling her, she said Daisy stepped in to help.

“This is a 15-year-old dog who had mobility issues, but she was able to get up after the first kicking, the first [trampling]. She was able to get up two more times to draw the moose away from me,” Ashton said. “She doesn’t run … Daisy actually got up and ran and kept drawing the moose further away from us.”

Ashton said that since the moose had its attention on Daisy, her sister was able to hide behind a tree where she was on the phone with 911.

“She’s my guardian angel,” Ashton said. “She saved my life. There’s no doubt she saved my life.”

Ashton was later transported to a hospital where she was treated for injuries that included a broken wrist.

Daisy, her sweet companion for the past 14 years, faced internal injuries, including a shattered leg that Ashton was told would need to be amputated.

“Her injuries were too severe,” Ashton said. “For a 15-year-old dog to take, that would be too much. I gave them permission to put her down, and they thanked me for that. So I stayed with her for a while, and they gave her a shot.”

Ashton is at home healing and awaiting surgery. When it comes to the Kincaid trails, she said that for now, she has no plans to return.

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