The biblical tale of David fighting Goliath played out in a North Carolina home when a tiny angel dog took on a large black bear to protect its terrified family.

Tiffany Merrill was home with her family in Black Mountain, N.C., when a bear lumbered into their home. Merrill screamed for her children to lock their bedroom doors and hide as she tried to figure out what to do about the ursine intruder.

“I thought I was going to die,” she told WRAL. “I started yelling for my kids, ‘Shut your doors, shut your doors, there’s a bear in the house.”

The bear, of course, was just being a bear and probably looking for something to eat. That didn't sit well with Pickles, the Merrill family's 5-pound black dog.

Pickles obviously wasn't a raging, muscle-bound beast like some MMA fighter in the octagon. But what Pickles lacked in size it made up with tenacity, intensity and determination.

“My dog came out, started barking and got the bear’s attention and got the bear outside and he saved my life,” Merrill said.

Pickles had the strength of angels on its side when it barked, snarled and somehow got the bear out of the home. That seems tough to imagine but obviously Pickles wasn't going to give up and the big ol' bear didn't like it one bit.

Pickles may have won the battle but, unfortunately, didn't win the war. The bear prevailed in the scrap before disappearing into the nearby woods. Pickles will be missed by the Merrill family but definitely always will be remembered as a hero.