In the immediate aftermath of the attack, the women found themselves grappling not only with physical recovery but with something none of them had expected: attention. Their story spread quickly—from national headlines to television interviews—and while the recognition was often framed as heroic, the reality was far more complicated.
Behind the scenes, they were navigating trauma, therapy, job loss, anxiety, and a public narrative that didn’t always reflect the whole truth. Each woman processed the experience in her own way, confronting fear, grief, and—eventually—growth. The second half of their story explores that quieter, harder part of healing: what it means to be seen, and what it takes to keep going once the cameras are gone.
Question- I’m assuming the anxiety was high, did it fade, or does it just kind of pop out of nowhere?
Annie – A couple of times, I have been in the woods by myself when suddenly there’s a deer there. It’s like you’re just a deer, but that heart rate.
Aune- It’s wildlife in general, I feel. It’s like there’s wildlife, because when you’re alone, it’s like a beautiful nature. And that’s like, there are animals, too. Maybe there is a deer, or like a little bird, or a grouse. The grouse can creep out, too.
Annie- And the noises they make, I think it’s a bear. Is that a bear chuffing over there? What the hell?
Tisch – Well, in North Bend, they’re on the trails by Torguson Park. I was doing a little ride, and all of a sudden, I saw this thing, and it was like the size of a cat, with a long tail.
I had to go home and look it up. The thing is looking at me, so I’m peering at it. I’m whistling. I’m swearing. And then the thing turns sideways and starts hopping towards me. And then this lady over there is looking at me like, it’s like 3 o’clock, and I’m like, what is this? And finally, I’m running after it. It was a weasel.
So, this lady is coming towards me. She’s like, did you see that? Yeah, what was that? She ends up being a PhD psychologist. We went into a whole thing about PTSD and blah, blah, blah, and all this. But like this, they were everywhere. I’m like you’re not gonna win today.
Question – You’ve received national attention for this. You were recognized with the Carnegie Medal and everything. How was the attention? I’m assuming it has calmed down now. Was it overwhelming? Or was it positive?
Tisch – I know it’s dwindling, but I talked to the AARP people yesterday. We’re gonna be in the June issue. It goes to 38 million viewers. I think our attention is going to change a little bit in June. I’m not sure if you’re aware of that. That was startling yesterday is really stuck in my head like, oh, what’s that gonna do?
Question – Do people recognize you guys when you’re out and about?
Aune – I got recognized twice. Nobody recognizes me.
Keri – Nobody recognizes me.
Erika – I remember riding with you to that coffee shop, and they were like, “you were in the cougar attack.” And you were telling those ladies, they were like, “We saw you in the paper.”
Keri- Yeah, I look different now.
Erica – I remember when those ladies recognized you. That was soon after we went on a bike ride and went to the coffee shop. You said this woman helped save my life, and you were telling him the whole thing because they were like, wait a minute. They kept staring at us, and then they finally said something.
Tisch – I was doing a bike ride with my group of friends in Indiana. And some in my group, I tend to know lots of people, and he goes, “I saw you on the Today show,” or something. “You’re a hero,” and I’m like, *hangs head* because I was trying to be low-key in Indiana.
For Aune, the attack itself didn’t leave her with post-traumatic stress—she felt that way because Keri survived and they had saved her life. But the aftermath was still tough. As a private person who lives alone, being approached by ABC News just three days later was deeply unsettling. A reporter showed up on her doorstep at 8 p.m. and stuck a microphone in her face, which left her nervous about being recognized in public and wary of the sudden attention.
In contrast, she said NPR made her feel safe and respected. That interview allowed the group to tell their story in their own words, rather than just filling in soundbites for someone else’s version. She said she was glad to return for NPR’s town hall event in December, which turned out to be a joyful evening, especially once they realized how many friends were in the audience.
Question -You said you want to see a cougar, or you’re interested by them. Did this change your perspective? Did you want to learn more?
Tisch said she’d been taking time off work and meeting with a counselor two to three times a week to manage what she described as extreme PTSD. She recently lost her job and is now focusing on healing.
One thing she felt compelled to do was see a cougar again—not in fear, but in peace. Her last memory of the animal was violent: a gun going off between her and Erica. Wanting a different image in her mind, she visited a wildlife center in Puyallup, where she sat quietly and watched a cougar move freely through an enclosure. She said seeing it in that calm setting gave her a sense of peace and helped her remember that it’s still a beautiful, living creature.
She’s also starting to recall more details from the attack, including the moments the cougar was on Keri’s head—something she believes her body had blocked out. Despite the trauma, she said her love for animals remains strong. On later outings, she saw several bears and was struck again by how beautiful wild creatures can be.
Aune – It’s a beautiful animal, and I will never forget the color of its eye. It was this beautiful amber color, but this determination of its stare too. It’s like it was very apparent that it would not let go.
Erica – You kept telling us those are killing machines. We must keep our eye on that second cougar; we can’t give up.
Aune – They’re big predators. That’s what they’re gonna do.
Tisch – I’m doing [1]EMDR. So, I’m diving deep because, good, I want to go out there and be a badass in the woods again. My nephew brought it up, but we keep talking about PTSD, but there’s also PTG, post-traumatic growth.
Aune – And that’s what I want. I think we want to reclaim that
Erica – This is right. I definitely had PTSD and was treated for that, but I’ve had amazing growth from this experience. You’re not in a static position of trauma, just because you’ve been traumatized, right? You can come out of it, and life can be beautiful, and you can enjoy and appreciate life even more than you did before.
Keri said that over the past year, she’s watched a lot—probably more than is healthy—on both sides of the cougar population debate. She still doesn’t feel informed enough to take a firm stance, acknowledging how complex the topic is regarding numbers and regulation. She hopes that people are making decisions with real knowledge—scientists, hunters, and even those who want cougars to flourish because they find them beautiful. But, she added, “we can’t let them flourish too much.” Humans have already disrupted nature’s balance, she feels, and while she doesn’t believe full protection is the answer, she also knows it’s not simple.
In October 2024, Annie, Tisch, Aune, and Erica were awarded the Carnegie Medal in a Seattle City Hall ceremony recognizing their extraordinary bravery. The honor was given for their life-saving actions during the attack that injured their friend. U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal helped present the medals, calling their courage and resilience an inspiration.
Question – Is there anything about this past year that surprised you? I realize the Carnegie Medal must have been a surprise; that’s huge. How did you find out?
Aune- They reached out in May.
Tisch – You got an email from Carnegie. How did this award get presented to us? Was it your sister?
Keri – My sister nominated them, and they also got the information from the news.
Aune – So they contacted us in May, and then they started interviewing us, then we had to write our reports, and they read some more. They put it in front of their board in July. We got word two days before I left Germany that we would be the recipients.
Question – If a bicyclist came to you for advice, what would you say?
Tisch- Awareness and education. I think we’re all there, but it’s also hikers. Anyone who’s going into the forest. Usually it’s like, what do you guys do when you go in the forest? I don’t know, I could just go hiking, so you should bring bear spray, a knife, and the bells. Because if you’re going out there unarmed, shame on us, right? Two, what I also talk about is just if you’re in a group of five, what one person needs, everybody needs something. My thing is awareness of bringing things. Make sure everyone has everything, be aware, contact people before you go, and tell them where you’re at.
Aune – I want to clarify something. We prepare for possibilities. If an attack happens, nobody can prepare for that. But once disaster strikes and unforeseen things happen, like what we encountered, the focus shifts from preparedness to crisis management.
And that is a very individual. Even between us, it’s a very individual scenario, and you don’t know, I didn’t know what I would do. Nobody does. You can conquer that. You can prepare as much as you want, but you still don’t know what happens when an attack happens. So that is crisis management. That is a disaster nobody really wants. We don’t know what will happen. We don’t know how we all react. We don’t know.
Annie – You know what’s very surprising. This cougar was big; bears are big. Keri had me watch this video, and when she told me about it, I rolled my eyes like whatever. But I watched the interview these guys had on YouTube about three ladies who were tubing down a river in Montana and got attacked by river otters. The woman was way more injured than Keri was, like she had big scars on her face. She was bitten all over her body. The others were trying to drown the two women.
It barely matters what size they are anymore. They’re wild animals. I think the woman almost died. Keri and I, a couple of years ago, encountered a bear just before we got to the Snoqualmie tunnel. He was busy eating his dinner, and we were screaming, and she set off this noise-maker thing she had. And he didn’t care. He looked up at us.
Question – You’ve all this time to process it, do you look at it differently in any way? Does it feel different in any way? Is it the same as a year ago in your head?
Keri – I feel like I relive in my head every day what happened. Not in a negative way, but I think about it. And I think of things that might have helped or that I could do differently. But I do feel like it would be, like I will be more prepared when it happens. I don’t even know the answer.
Aune – I think since the outcome was positive and we saved Keri, I think, at the moment, with our abilities and what we had. That was the best outcome.
For me personally, and I only on that one, I can only speak to myself. That’s why I said earlier. I don’t go back. I think we did everything combined in our power to have the outcome.
Tisch – Well, you remember the story I keep telling. Maybe I did say when I met Keri 6 years ago, I was on a cascade rebel ride. I was telling her that I was moving to North Bend. Keri said there was a cougar attack. I’m like, what is that? She was saying that there were two individuals, unfortunately, one passed away, and how sad. And she goes, well, the other person ran.[2]
So, at that moment, when I was turning around, I remembered that story vividly looking at you going, “We can’t run literally,” I think to this day, I don’t know because we all did what we had to do. But if you had asked at that moment, would I have run? I’ll never know the answer to that question; Thank god I’ve never had to answer that.
Erica – Maybe Keri unknowingly saved her own life.
Question – Did you surprise yourselves with how you could fight? Did you think about that before? Do you think you would have thought you had that in you?
Tisch – I’m feisty.
Erica – You know what surprises me. I’m surprised that we all acted and didn’t argue. We just like read each other’s minds and did what we each other told the other person do. You know, none of us, there was no questioning or hesitation. It was like we were doing what we were supposed to do, all different things and all at once, and just doing it. What surprises me is the collaboration and compassion that we all had, which outweighed the flight.
Aune – But you still don’t know what’s gonna happen because every situation is different. I never saw a cougar; I thought about cougars, but I never saw one until that day. I never thought of that animal, what could happen, what I would do. And now, after that, I know so much more. I don’t know how I will react the second time. You don’t know, because now I have a totally different plane to go at, right? Because I know more. I don’t know if that’s a positive.
Question – Did you go out and seek out information about cougars after this happened?
Aune – Well, it was a combined effort. Keri did some research; we all did some research. And we all talked to the cougar specialist, talking to fish and wildlife and gathering information and also educating friends and teammates about it.
Annie – I think if you would have asked me before, I think I always imagined if I encountered a wild animal, it would be a face off. I would have a chance to do what I’m supposed to do and act big and yell at everything. But that’s not at all what happened. We spent a long time really stressing to people. We had 3 seconds from when we saw them till it took Keri off the bike, 3 seconds, we had no time to do anything in that short time.
Erica –It was in kill mode.
Annie- Yeah, and it happened so fast.
Erica – There was a second cougar that we were looking out for. If that would have come out, then game over.
Question – Did it change your friendship in any way? Did you get closer?
Keri – It has. We’ve had some tough times over the past year, and we all love each other unconditionally, but we’ve had some ups and downs. It’s affected all of us differently, emotionally. But we’ve all grown too.
Erica – In any relationship, you disagree. They’re my sisters forever. If Annie calls me at 2:00 am and says, Erica, I need you to come over to my house. I’d be there in a heartbeat, and don’t tell anyone. We’re like a sisterhood. There’s no way I would ever ever not be here for anyone. We all feel the same way, it’s unconditional love and trust. We had our lives in each other’s hands.
Aune – Healing has its own timeline. And for all each of us, we have individual timelines, and we go through ups and downs in life and personal growth and group growth.
Keri – I also think that we really try to understand what’s going on with each other. It’s important that we understand that maybe I’m not experiencing something that somebody else in our five is. And just trying to give each other some grace.
Tisch – Yeah, it is gonna *change the friendship*. I know last year I had to step away because it was rough. I couldn’t function. It was interesting, though, because this last time, when I got the call that I lost my job but the next day, I’m like you guys, I lost my job and just say prayers for me. I don’t think I could have done that a year ago.
I think last year. When we were dealing with so many different things and how I am today and the growth that I’m experiencing, when I see team coop, I get so damn emotional. I get such joy and peace in my heart. I’m like, we did this. So, I’m working through it, but I do love everyone.
A year later, each of the five women continues to navigate healing in her own way—through therapy, reflection, research, and staying connected to one another. The experience reshaped how they see the world but didn’t break their spirit. Their bond has only deepened, rooted in shared trauma, strength, and the choice to keep moving forward. They may never return to who they were before, but together, they’ve shown what resilience truly looks like.
[1] Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapy for mental health conditions caused by past trauma. It’s best known for effectively treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by helping people process and reduce distress from traumatic memories.
[2] Fight or flight isn’t something you control. It’s a brain reflex. It doesn’t make a person better or worse depending on whether they fight or flee. Fight-or-flight response – Wikipedia
