They emerged as the unlikely survivors of a fierce encounter.
A mother from Surprise, Arizona, found herself in a terrifying situation when a coyote attacked her four-year-old daughter. Armed only with a flip-flop, she confronted the wild animal.
“We had gone outside because it was windy. And my daughter’s like, ‘Oh, let’s fly a kite,’” Brittany Cardinal recalled about that unsettling afternoon on September 6.
But, within seconds, their playful day transformed into a frantic struggle for survival.
Cardinal heard her daughter scream and immediately turned around to see the coyote menacingly nipping at her daughter.
That was her cue to spring into action.
“I picked her up, of course,” the 35-year-old said. “And then I started yelling at it, thinking, of course, it was going to go away, but then it didn’t.”
The coyote remained undeterred.
And so did the mother.
Without a second thought, she snatched the flip-flop from her foot and began swinging it at the aggressive animal, while yelling as loudly as she could to frighten it away.
“There was no hesitation at all. I don’t even think I thought about anything. I think you, like a mom, try to protect your kid,” she reflected.
In the chaos, she stumbled and fell, allowing the coyote to latch onto her face.
“I always hear people say, ‘You don’t feel the pain when trauma like that happens,’ and I mean, I really didn’t feel any pain. I just felt like the pressure of it,” Cardinal explained.
Injured but resolute, she kept fighting.
Eventually, father and daughter managed to create distance from the coyote and dash back to their home to seek help.
While the mother suffered lacerations and puncture wounds to her face, her bravery ensured her daughter was unharmed in this distressing episode.
Arizona Game and Fish officials noted that this was the first documented coyote attack on a person in the Phoenix area since December 2023, and the reasons behind it remain unclear.
Wildlife officials have since captured several coyotes in the region and are conducting tests for rabies.
Cardinal acted exactly as recommended during such encounters.
“You fight back, you yell at the animal, be loud with it, throw rocks, whatever you have to do to get that animal to just run off,” advised Alex Flickinger, a community liaison for Arizona Game and Fish.
Now, Cardinal is taking no chances; she carries pepper spray with her at all times.
