bobcat
© Alamy Stock PhotoA wild bobcat in the Florida wetlands. DeDe Phillips of Hart county, survived an attack by a bobcat in Georgia by strangling the animal.
A 46-year-old grandmother strangled a rabid bobcat to death after the animal attacked her in her front yard in north-eastern Georgia.

The Athens-Banner Herald reported that DeDe Phillips of Hart county had gone outside on 7 June to take a picture when the bobcat lunged at her.

"My neighbor's dog was barking and it drew my attention," she said. "I saw the cat and I took a picture. The cat took two steps and was on top of me ... It came for my face."

Phillips said she grew up in the country, where her father-in-law was once a trapper of bobcats. As a result, she knew something about the animal's behavior and how to fight back.

"I thought, 'not today'," she told the newspaper. "There was no way I was going to die."

She grabbed the cat by its throat and didn't let go. She was afraid of calling for help, she said, because her five-year-old granddaughter was in the house.

"Once I got him where he wasn't moving," she said, "I started screaming for my daughter-in-law to call 911."

Her son arrived with a gun, she said, but she didn't want him to fire because she was so close. So he pulled a knife.

"My son stabbed it four or five times," she said, "but it never budged so I knew it was completely dead."

Phillips suffered a broken finger and several bite and claw wounds to her hands, arms, chest and legs. She was also treated for rabies.