Hero Teen Who Fought Bear to Save Dogs Explains WHAT She Was Thinking

After becoming an overnight sensation, Hailey Morinico is looking back on that crazy instinctive decision.

"Honestly, there was nothing really going through my mind, except that I had to protect my dogs," she told CNN.

She said when she saw her smallest dog Valentine literally leave the ground in the bear's paw she knew "I had to do what I had to do."

"So I knelt down and had about 2 seconds to think, and the first thing that popped into my head was to push the bear off the ledge."

Her mother, Citlally Morinico, who was out gardening in the back yard with her daughter when the incident occurred, told ABC7 she can barely look at the video.

"I just break down every time I see (it)," she said. "It's just horrifying to watch."

It's human mama bear vs actual mama bear — and the winner might surprise you.

Insane video shot in Southern California and posted on TikTok captured the moment a teen girl called Hailey took on a fully grown bear to protect her dogs... and won.

It shows an adult brown bear perched on a garden wall separating two homes, with two cubs right beneath her, and all hell breaks loose when the four dogs that live there catch sight of her.

They immediately begin barking at the bear, who defensively swipes at the largest collie, narrowly missing.

When the tiny Yorkshire terrier ill-advisedly tries to follow suit, the bear gets hold of it and pins it against the wall, and it looks like the puppy's time is up.

But that's when its 17-year-old owner sprints onto the scene — and shoves the bear clear off the wall.

With not a thought for her own safety, she quickly scoops up the dogs and makes sure they are all safe before she runs back into the house. The bear, having met their match, also makes a hasty retreat.

The video, shared by Hailey's cousin Brenda, has already been viewed more than 35million times in just 14 hours.

"My cousin Hailey yeeted a bear off her fence today and saved her dogs," she wrote. "How was your Memorial Day?! (WTF?!)"

In a story time, the hero Hailey explained what exactly was going through her mind:

"Hi I'm the person who fought off a bear to protect my kids," she introduces herself in the softest voice imaginable.

"Okay, I want to preface this: I live in the mountains, so this is actually like really normal, and it's summer so they like always come now."

"So this like is our garden back yard area, and they were there, and they start barking, our dogs, and I thought they were just barking at a dog, 'cause they always bark at dogs or squirrels or whatever, 'cause they're dumb."

"But I go to tell them to stop, you know? And when I go over there to see what they're barking at, I'm like: 'That's a funny looking dog,'" she giggled.

"And by the time I get there, the bear is literally picking up one of my dogs. This dog — her name is Valentina, she is the baby. And as her slave, I have to protect her."

"So I go over to the bear, I look it in the eyes, and the first thing I think to do is push it. Push a bear. Push an apex predator, man."

"And to be honest I don't think I like I pushed her that hard... I just pushed her enough to make her like loose her balance?"

"So she drops my dog and I RUN outta there. I grab my other dog, I sprain my finger, and scrape my knee. But we're all okay. We're all weird."