Man Wrestles Coyote; Grandson Runs For Help

NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. -- A Massachusetts grandfather was recovering Thursday after wrestling with a coyote that attacked him and his 4-year-old grandson while they were walking on a nature trail.

Arthur Cole, 76, and his grandson, Nicholas, 4, were walking near the Assabet River about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday when the 45-pound female coyote attacked them from behind, reported Boston television station WCVB. Nicholas ran for help while his grandfather wrestled the coyote to the ground.

"I had ahold of her tail with my left hand, and I think I had my right arm under her head," Cole recalled, his right hand and left ankle thoroughly bandaged.

Nicholas saw the coyote biting his grandfather and ran about a quarter of a mile back to his grandfather's retirement community home to get help.

"I thought that I should go get help," Nicholas said as he sat on the shoulders of his dad, Peter, and recounted what happened.

Cole held the coyote down for about 15 minutes until help arrived. He was bitten multiple times and had to have stitches.

"I could feel the hind legs kicking out there, but I had my face right in the long hair on her back," Cole said. "I fell on top of the coyote, which was a tremendous stroke of luck because I was able to hold her down and she was all tangled up in my right arm and she was biting my right elbow. So this was a real attack. I think she was trying to kill."

Nicholas returned with his father, who made a 911 call directing police to the site. Officers ended up choking the coyote because they couldn't risk shooting it with Cole sitting on it.

"It looked like a healthy coyote. It was small -- 45 pounds -- but it didn't look like it hadn't eaten. Looked like a full fur coat. Looked healthy to me. As far as being rabid, who's to know? But it didn't look rabid," Peter Cole said.

Health officials are still completing tests to determine if the coyote was rabid and if Arthur Cole will need rabies treatments. In the meantime, residents at Cole's retirement community have been been advised about the attack.