A dog owner was stunned to return from work to find a wild lynx had commandeered his pooch's basket.
Nikola Zovko, owner of several dogs including Squeakers, thought the creature was a normal domestic feline when he first saw it.
But when he took a closer look, he realised it was a lynx, which is called a bobcat in the US, where Nikola lives.
He said the forest prowler was "living it up" as though he was at the "Taj Mahal".
"It sorta...looked at me and started growling," Nikola added.
Nikola, who lives in Arizona, said he'd been left unnerved by the encounter, leading him to evacuate his other pets and contact Arizona's Game and Fish Department.
Hoping the bobcat would "leave on his own", he opened up all the doors and windows.
After a 45-minute stand-off the wild bobcat, which Nikola thinks had probably entered through a dog-flap, wandered off its own.
But it was then that he realised that one of his dogs, Squeakers, was missing.
The 10-year-old chihuahua-dachshund mix didn't reappear until the next day. And when he did, he had serious injuries that were almost certainly the result of a disagreement with the bobcat about who was going to sleep in his bed.
"He was in pretty bad shape," Nikola said, "he was pretty tore up".
Squeakers had suffered deep scratch marks on his hindquarters, and Nikola rushed him to the vet.
The little dog underwent several hours of surgery, and is "very lucky to have survived".
His vaccinations were up-to-date, but Squeakers still has to be quarantined in case he contracted rabies during his bobcat battle.
Nikola has now launched a GoFundMe to try and raise the $3,300 needed for his dog's medical bills.
In the UK, a woman has been banned from owning a pet for 10 years after her dog had to be put down because of her neglect.
Diane Boyden 59, admitted an offence of causing an animal unnecessary suffering. The Blyth woman did not get her Staffordshire bull terrier Teagan the treatment she needed after a "tennis ball-sized" lump appeared on her body.
RSPCA Inspector Kirsty Keogh-Laws went to Boyden's home in October last year, Chronicle Live reported.
The inspector said in a witness statement: "Teagan appeared to be very underweight - I could clearly see her hips, ribs and spine. She had a large lump on her right shoulder, around the size of a tennis ball. It was hard to touch. She also had a lump on her back leg."
