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Claude Strother wasn't expecting much action when he slipped into the Alabama woods on the afternoon of April 18. The 82-year-old turkey hunter had an hour to spare and figured he'd pass it by working a few calls from his Wilcox County property. What he got instead was the wildest hunt of his life,
when a bobcat launched itself at the back of his head.Strother had been feeling restless because his wife, Bettie, had gone to Birmingham for the day. So he decided to go hunting and planned to sit for about an hour and call every so often to try to strike up a gobbler.
"Instead of sitting by a big tree like I always do, I sat between two little trees about as big as my arm," Strother said in a
Facebook reel posted by his daughter, DeAnn McGilberry. "It left my back and head exposed."
He'd only been calling for a few minutes when something hit him hard from behind.
"All of a sudden, I thought someone had hit me with a baseball bat," Strother said. "It hit behind my head. My whole head is sore. His claws hit right above my eyes. Not any real damage, although there was a lot of blood."
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