Pastor saves pomeranian from coyote’s clutches

By Mark Ellis

In over 40 years of ministry he’s helped to rescue saints and sinners from many dangers, toils and snares. But when his little pomeranian ended up in the death grip of a coyote with murderous intent, he leapt into rescue mode – prompted by the Holy Spirit.

“Little Bear is our cutesy Pomeranian who thinks he was born to sit in people’s laps and get never ending attention,” says Jay Grant, pastor of prayer at Church by the Sea in Laguna Beach, California.

Pastor Jay and his wife Nikki have cared for Little Bear for 12 years – since he was a puppy. He’s part of the family — one of God’s wonderful creations known to yip and yap as fast and as loud as he can when visitors show up.

“Little Bear is one of the joys of Nikki’s life and she adores him,” Pastor Jay says. He likes him too — at least most of the time. Little Bear is so popular with their friends that one of them calls their back yard “Little Bear National Park.”

A few weeks ago, Pastor Jay was on the phone when Little Bear went off, yipping and whining and jumping on the door to the back yard. As he hung up the phone, Little Bear rushed through the door and charged up the side of their property.

At first Pastor Jay thought it might be a pack of raccoons or a few possums. He never follows Little Bear into the yard in these situations, but this night, he felt prompted to trail the pint-sized pooch.

He was startled by what he saw. “As I rounded a tall hedge, I saw two large coyotes, with Little Bear charging the nearest one,” he recounts. One of the coyotes grabbed Little Bear behind the neck and his sharp teeth viciously tore into the much smaller animal.

“I instinctively lunged at the coyote, shouting at the top of my lungs. I so startled him, he dropped Little Bear and took off up the hill with his mate.”

Little Bear, wounded and whimpering, limped back toward their house, gravely wounded. He sustained six deep

teeth wounds, a punctured lung and two broken ribs.

But after much prayer and two days at the vet (which took a bite from the pastor’s wallet), he came home and has slowly been regaining his strength.

“Little Bear has made a dramatic recovery from his coyote attack,” Pastor Jay says. “In two weeks time he is near normal. Drain tubes were removed last week. Stitches go tomorrow. Little Bear is eating again, jumping up on the couch and two days ago barked for the first time. He’s about all the way back, save the sore ribs.”

“He’s a fighter, a tough little guy, a true survivor. He stared death in the face and said, ‘I just think I’ll stay alive for awhile.’”

Pastor Jay sees God’s hand in this entire episode. “I have to believe in miracles and in the providence of God,” Pastor Jay says. “I never follow Little Bear into the back yard, but something propelled me this time.”

“The coyotes had pushed a back gate off the hinge to get into the yard. I’ll tell you this, they’re not dumb And that coyote had a death grip on Little Bear but still dropped him when he saw me coming.”

“I give thanks to God for His goodness in sparing a member of our family,” he says.