A scary encounter. Travis Van Winkle had to think fast when he and his dog Karen ran into a pair of coyotes while out for a stroll.
The You star, 39, recounted the incident in an Instagram video posted on Sunday, January 23. “Way too close for comfort,” he captioned the post. “Glad my little sweetie is okay. Luckily it went our way today.”
The Last Ship alum was hiking with the pooch in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park on Sunday when two coyotes appeared and came after Karen. “One almost got her leg,” Van Winkle recalled. “I had to slide down the mountain literally screaming at the top of my lungs. I literally slid down the mountain and they scurried off.”
The California native thought one of the canines had bitten his pet, but he later realized she was fine. The actor, however, ended up with a large scrape on his left leg, which he showed in the video.
“Holy s–t, that was close,” he added. “That was closer than I wanted it to be.”
Van Winkle often shares photos of his beloved dog via Instagram. Last year, he brought the budding star to the set of a project he was filming with Rachael Leigh Cook. “Karen and @rachaelleighcook’s chemistry is undeniable,” he joked in November 2021.
The Hart of Dixie alum celebrated his pet’s first birthday in February 2021, sharing a photo of the pooch with the caption, “Happy first birthday Karen, you little doggy angel.”
Van Winkle is not the first celebrity to have a frightening encounter with coyotes. In February 2019, LeAnn Rimes lost her dog Eveie when the pet was attacked by one in front of her and her husband, Eddie Cibrian.
“This is one of the most difficult, heartbroken [sic] moments our whole family has ever experienced,” the Masked Singer winner, 39, wrote via Instagram at the time.
In April 2014, Miley Cyrus famously lost her pup Floyd when he was attacked while she was on tour. The “Wrecking Ball” singer, 29, later paid tribute to her late pet with a giant Floyd inflatable that appeared onstage during her Bangerz tour.
Two years later, the Hannah Montana alum honored Floyd on what would have been his fifth birthday. “My dearest Floyd, i am sending you so much love and happiness on this very special day … The day you were born,” she wrote via Instagram in May 2016. “Weirdly enough I woke up very sick and stuck in bed … Heart break often comes with flu like symptoms.”
