Not every encounter with a coyote ends in doom for a chihuahua. Dan Compton of Tigard, Washington state, in August 2007, was leaving his fiancee Mary Curtis's house with his six-year-old chihuahuah Pinky.

Pinky wandered around the house when suddenly, "We heard yelping and crying fading away." Pinky was being carried off! Dan and Mary took off after the coyote, but with frightening suddenness, Pinky had fallen silent.

With a sense of hopelessness and helplessness, they continued searching for Pinky. A neighbor's large dog spotted the coyote in a field, and took off after it.

The startled coyote dropped Pinky, who was in shock but still breathing. Rushed to an Emergency Clinic, Pinky was declared to be pretty badly injured, including broken ribs and punctured lung.

But after surgery and miscellaneous care and follow-up treatments, it was clear Pinky would survive. Veterinarian Jerry Cox said, "That was a lucky dog. In 40-plus years of practice, I don't recall any other time a pet has gotten away." [Photo by Jaime Valdez of Portland Oregon]