That animal? A cat.
The woman identified by WJBK-TV only as Maxx said the cat was a stray she had taken in over the summer and named Buddy. But in late November after Buddy attacked her mom's dog, Maxx tried to shoo it away, kicking snow at it at one point.
Captured on her home security camera, the cat, enraged by the snow, launched itself at Maxx and her pink pajamas.
Teeth and claws were sunk into Maxx's face. She was able to free herself from the cat and cast it away from her, storming back to the house holding her face.
"My first reaction was to get him off and when I went to pull, I could feel his teeth," Maxx told WJBK. "You can't just rip him off or he was going to rip me wide open."
Watch the footage:
These wounds resulted in an infection that caused Maxx's face to swell and she required medical attention, WJBK reported.
© WJBK-TVMaxx’s face became infected and she had to be tested for rabies. The cat was also tested for rabies, but tests came back negative.
"I actually saved him from someone who was going put him down and he was sweet as pie. When they came to get him I couldn't even watch because even though he did that to me, I couldn't see them take him away because I knew what they were going do to him," she told the news station.
Watch WJBK-TV's report with Maxx's account of the incident after the fact:
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Buddy was taken in by authorities and was put down. Prior to this attack, WJBK reported that Buddy had bitten two other people.
(H/T: Daily Mail)
Cats are not as domesticated of a breed as dogs are, they have closer roots to their ancestral feral relatives. A domestic cat can revert to an almost completely feral state in a matter of weeks after being in the wild.
Even though a domestic cat has gone feral it can still remember its domestic behaviors that grant it rewards such as food or shelter, but it is essentially still feral.
As we let our guards down around this type of cat, they can remind us that they are essentially wild animals.
I have been bitten and scratched many times by cats like this and it always comes as a shock because I always have convinced myself that the cat had completely reverted to domestication.
Cats are hunters and fiercely territorial and we have to always keep that in mind when dealing with them in this type of situation, especially if the cat has already displayed aggression towards other people.
Another thing to note, cat saliva is extremely high in bacteria content. This has to do with their hunting. These bacteria counteract any disease they may encounter in their prey. This bacteria is extremely infectious and any cat bite needs to be treated by a professional health care representative immediately.