‘Our little savior’: partly blind New Mexico dog hailed for warding off bear

‘Bear slayer’ Honey injured during confrontation to protect family and animals from ursine home invader A half-blind, 12-year-old New Mexico dog is being called “bear slayer” after she fended off an ursine intruder at her family’s home, protecting dozens of chickens and other animals but only narrowly surviving the violent encounter. As told by her caretakers, the story of Honey demonstrates the extreme loyalty of dogs to their owners. Honey’s owner, Denise Martinez of New Mexico’s Cordova community, said security-footage audio and animal tracks established that the dog, in early March, had battled with a bear who had approached their land. The bear was seemingly fresh out of hibernation and hungry, the local Española Humane shelter wrote in a Facebook post. But not one of more than 60 chickens cooped up on the property were harmed, and neither were other creatures, including two horses and dogs, after Honey warded the bear off. Honey, however, paid a steep price physically, Martinez said during a brief telephone interview on Monday. Martinez said security camera audio captured the moment when Honey fell into the clutches of the bear, who made terrifying sounds durin