In August 2019, Matt Rispoli, his wife Elisa, and their two young children were camping in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It was supposed to be a nice family trip, until a wolf crept into their tent while they were sleeping.“It was like something out of a horror movie,” Elisa later described.While Matt was wrestling with the wolf, Russ Fee, who was staying at a neighboring campsite, heard cries for help. At first, he didn’t think it was anything to worry about.“It sounded like they might be missing a kid, or we just heard ‘kid, kid’ over and over again. And my wife asked me if we should go help, and I figured we should wait a second to hear a bit more.”But after both Matt and Elisa began yelling, Russ ran over.“When I arrived the tent had been collapsed, and there was just the back half of a wolf sticking out the front of it.”Acting on adrenaline, Russ kicked the wolf in the back. It whimpered out of the tent, and a few seconds later, so did Matt, who was severely injured.“He was in pretty rough shape. He had some pretty obvious gashes on his arm, but he had blood mostly down one side of his entire body.”Desperate to keep the animal away, Matt grabbed tent rods to scare the wolf off, while Russ picked up nearby rocks and started throwing them in the wolf’s direction.The wolf backed down, but its appetite wouldn’t let it leave. It continued to circle around the family.To avoid being ambushed, they continued to track it with their lights, but they knew Matt needed to get to a hospital. Russ brought everyone to his campsite, where he and his wife loaded the family into their car and started bandaging the bleeding father’s arm.But the wolf remained a threat, especially with Russ’s kids still in their tent.“We heard my wife scream and we looked around and the wolf had actually followed us back onto our site. And was now next to our tent with our kids in it. So we were able to, one last chase, one last run at it.”Their last attempt to scare the wolf away worked. The Fees got their children into their car and rushed Matt to a nearby hospital.Matt suffered puncture wounds and cuts on his arms and hands, but he fully recovered. Russ Fee was awarded Canada’s Medal of Bravery in 2020, and he stayed in touch with the Rispolis, who called him a guardian angel.As for the wolf, it was tracked down and killed. Tests for rabies came back negative, and it was determined that the animal was older, in poor condition and nearing the end of its life.Officials believed those factors may have contributed to the unusual attack.