TCJ reporter Fred Tippens has quit his union and I’m paying him the same thing I was before. He sends this.
A Georgia grandmother won a life and death battle against a rabid bobcat earlier this month by killing the animal with her bare hands after it attacked her in the backyard of her home.
Hart Country resident DeDe Phillips told the Anthens Banner-Herald on Thursday that the will to survive helped her overcome the ferocious predator threatening her life.
‘I thought, “Not today.” There was no way I was going to die,’ Phillips recalled while detailing the June 7 attack.
‘I’m very lucky,’ the 46-year-old added.
The incident occurred around 6pm after Phillips spent most of the day working on her truck.
After finishing up, Phillips said she wanted to send a photograph to her husband of a bumper sticker she placed on the vehicle that read: ‘Women who behave rarely make history.’
Cellphone in hand, she walked out of the house and into the backyard.
‘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.’
Fortunately for Phillips, she was familiar with the animal’s behavior after spending a lifetime out in the country, where her father-in-law was once a bobcat trapper.
‘They go for your jugular … because when they can get the vein you’re dead in a couple of minutes,’ she said.
‘It caught me slightly on my face, but I got him before he could do much damage there. I took it straight to the ground and started inching my hands up to its throat. I knew that was the only way I was getting out of this,’ she added.
Phillips said she refrained from screaming for help during the struggle, aware that her five-year-old granddaughter was in the house.
‘I was scared if I screamed for help that my granddaughter would come out and I didn’t want that to happen,’ she said.
‘Once I got him where he wasn’t moving I started screaming for my daughter-in-law to call 911,’ she said. Phillips’ son was also called and arrived with a gun and knife to help finish off the animal.
Good Lord! This woman must be a bad-ass. I’d hate to tangle with her.
I’m guessing that the cat attacked so quickly that having a gun wouldn’t have been of any use early on in the fight. At least he didn’t show up to hear “Just shoot up here amongst us – one of has got to have some relief!“
