Woman Chokes Rabid Bobcat To Death With Bare Hands

If an animal ever attacks you in the wild, you better hope that you have as much fighting spirit as Georgia grandmother DeDe Phillips.

Phillips, 46, was attacked by a bobcat with rabies in her driveway. Fortunately, she was able to fight off the massive creature.

A Wild Encounter

According to CNN affiliate station WGCL, a bobcat pounced on Phillips just outside her residence in Hart County on Thursday, June 7. Her granddaughter, 5, was taking a nap, so she took the opportunity to step outside to place a sticker on a new truck.

Phillips went back inside to get her phone, then when she stepped back outside, there was a bobcat waiting for her.

"As soon as it took the first step, I was in trouble and I knew it," Phillips recalls to WGCL. "When it got to [the] pole, it leaped on me ... I grabbed it by the shoulders and pushed it back away from me ... and I took it down."

She adds that she didn't scream to keep her granddaughter from waking and coming outside the house. Meanwhile, the bobcat chomped and broke her fingers, leaving her bruised and wounded on her hands, arms, legs, and chest.

During the scuffle, Phillips managed to wrap her hands over the animal's throat.

"And I strangled it to death," she says. ""If I had ever let it go, it would have been me, so I made sure I never let it go."

As soon as the animal stopped moving, Phillips finally called for help, according to Athens Banner-Herald. Her son showed up with a gun, but since she wouldn't release the bobcat's neck for fear it wasn't really dead, he went at the creature with a knife instead.

The man stabbed the bobcat a few times to make sure it's well and truly dead.

The Aftermath

Phillips managed to kill the animal, but her ordeal isn't over quite yet. The authorities discovered that the bobcat was rabid, so they burned the blood that was spilled outside the house.

Meanwhile, Phillips have to submit to a series of shots to make sure she doesn't get the disease. It's a pricey experience with the first round of rabies injections already piling up to $10,000.

Her cousin created an online donation account on Fundly to help fund all the medical bills.

Whatever happens in the future, the grandmother can definitely take it. After all, she has proven she's a survivor.

"My first thought [was] not today! I wasn't dying today," Phillips says.