I had a pretty average life.
My beautiful little cousin Kaylie was also my Goddaughter, and we were very bonded.
She was a cute, cheeky 5 year old who had me completely wrapped rounf her little finger.
Then one day, everything in the world changed.
Kaylie was sleeping over at mine one weekend - this was pretty usual, but that day, we were very bored.
All the chores were done, dinner had been eaten and there wasn't much on the telly.
My dog, Lex, and gorgeous Staffie X Patterdale sighed, also bored.
"I know!" I had suggested, "why don't we take Lex for a nice walk in the woods?"
"Yeah!" Kaylie jumped up, excited.
Lex had jumped up as soon as he heard the word 'walk', so laughing, I told Kaylie to get her coat on while I put Lex on his harness and leash.
That done, we were off.
For about twenty minutes, everything was great - Lex was allowed to have a very good run, and Kaylie had the time of her life trying to chase him.
More often than not, she would fall over and then laugh hysterically at herself.
I wondered if she began to do it on purpose.
I laughed - who cared? If she was happy, I was happy.
But then, I had a horrible feeling.
And awful shivery feeling down my spine, and every single hair on my body stood up.
Freezing, I told Kaylie not to move.
Being an obedient child, she stopped immediately and fell silent, sensing I was being very serious.
All at one, Lex came back, hackles up.
He growled fiercley at me, teeth bared.
Instinctivly I stood infront of Kaylie.
"Easy boy, its just me - what's the matter?" I breathed softly, trying to sooth him - this was completely out of character for him, as he was usually a very soft and cuddley dog who had never showed any sign of aggression.
The growling intensified and I tried my hardest to stay calm, a million thoughts racing through my head of him attacking us and having to have him put down.
I felt a lump in my throat at that horrifying thought.
The world had seemed to freeze, and I even forgot to breathe.
Then all at once, Lex lunged for the attack, and folded my arms around Kaylie, I braced myself.
But no pain came.
There was a horrifying explosion of noise as Lex began viciously attacking something behind me.
Almost too afraid to do so, I turned and looked behind me - and my heart almost stopped.
Lex was fighting a huge brown bear, at least 80 stone of solid muscle!
"Lex, leave it!" I screamed - he was only a pitiful 2 and a half stone, there was no way he could beat him...the scare tactic hadn't worked!
Where the hell had it came from? We lived in England! Bears were native to North America.
"Oh God please help us!" I pleaded, tears streaming down my face.
Lex yelped as the beat hit him with his huge paw, and I heard to Kaylie whimper, afraid.
All at once, the bear was attacking us!
"NO!" I sscreamed, trying my hardest to protect Kaylie.
But the bear, having being fighting Lex, was now angry and scared.
He grabbed my legs by his teeth and shook me like a rag doll, flinging me several feet away.
Agony surged through my legs and my side that I landed on, but all I could think about was Kaylie, and brave, brave Lex.
What seemed like from a million miles away, I could hear her.
She was screaming, utterly and completely terrified.
I had to get to her!
But my legs...no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stand on them, I would collapse straight away, physically unable to support my own weight.
"Please God, please help her!" I begged, now kneeling and desperately trying to drag myself to Kaylie.
Lex was barking, lunging, biting, snarling - but he couldn't stop the bear...I couldn't stop the bear...but the bear could stop Kaylie's screams.
I can still remember the moment of horrifying grief when she fell silent.
I knew.
I knew she was gone.
The bear was tearing her apart, and neither Lex nor me could do a thing to stop it.
"Oh God." I whimpered, in a state of indescribably, horrified terror, pain and grief.
The bear realised that Kaylie was dead, and turned his attention back to Lex.
He swiped at him, but Lex avoided, running back to tempt him - the bear fell into the chase, and they ran into the woods, snarling and barking and roaring.
Then, it was silent.
Terrible silent.