An 80-year-old woman, Martha Smith, faced off with a lion to protect her dog - and killed it in doing so!

Smith was home alone when she heard her Border collie Bo barking outside. When she looked through the window, she saw the dog confronting a snarling mountain lion.

Without hesitation, she grabbed her .22-caliber rifle, walked outside and fired a shot at the lion - but missed.

She went back inside and called the emergency services but they said they could not come out immediately, so she again took the matters into her own hands.

I knew I’d have to kill him. You can’t have a mountain lion in your yard.”

With the dog keeping the lion at bay, Smith fired again - this time from close range.

Despite not seeing the animal very well, she hit it in the chest, killing it. “All I could see was three feet of tail switching, and it was snarling and spitting at me,” she said.

She walked to within about 20 or 25 feet of the lion and fired. “I got as close as I could,” Smith said. “I figured he’d run. I waited until he lifted his leg to run, and I got him right in the chest where his heart would be.”

The lion jumped up, ran a short distance and dropped to the ground. A local wildlife expert estimated that the 6-month-old lion weighed 30 to 40 pounds.

Smith, a retired nurse anesthetist, said she was taught to shoot when young but had not used her rifle in a long time. She also said she’d like to have the lion mounted, but doubts the state Department of Game, Fish & Parks will return the carcass to her. <—-this last part is funny