LOS ANGELES — Brittany Furlan, the comedian and wife of rocker Tommy Lee, says her dog’s extra flab saved it from being carried off by a coyote that snatched it near the pool of their Los Angeles home.
Ring surveillance camera video posted Tuesday to Instagram by Furlan shows the coyote snatching the small dog, Neena, from poolside and running out of frame while Furlan screams and follows.
“I climbed up the wall and grabbed her out of its mouth. Thank God she’s a little bit fat because he couldn’t make it over the wall with her,” Furlan wrote.
Furlan said on Instagram that Neena is safe.
Lee, the famous co-founder of the band Mötley Crüe, also expressed shock at the animal encounter in the video.
Furlan wrote that the too-close encounter happened around 1 p.m. She said the incident occurred at the couple’s home in Brentwood, a neighborhood on the west side of Los Angeles near and in the Santa Monica Mountains, NBC Los Angeles reported.
Furlan said that she was shaken up but that she spoke to the station because “I just think it’s such an important message” about the safety of pets in Southern California.
“We get lazy, and we go, ‘You know, it’s OK, it’s 1 o’clock in the afternoon, nothing’s going to happen,'” she said. “And this is what happens. Sometimes you just get too comfortable.”
“Thank God, I always watch them,” she told NBC Los Angeles.
Coyotes are not an uncommon sight in parts of Los Angeles. They usually weigh 10 to 35 pounds, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
People are encouraged to not leave small pets outside unsupervised and to bring small pets inside at night to prevent coyote attacks. Trash and things like pet food can also attract coyotes.
The number of coyotes in California has been estimated at 250,000 to 750,000, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
The state Fish and Wildlife Department says on its website, “They have adapted to surviving, and often thriving, alongside humans in many California communities.”