You never really know how you'll respond in a high-stress situation until you're in it. Training helps, certainly, but you can't be certain you'll do the right thing before the time comes to put that training into action.
And if you don't have training, well, you just have to wing it, as one husband did when his wife came under attack from a rabid bobcat — and the hair-raising scene was captured on video.
At first, it looks merely like the man in the video is about to head out somewhere, and as he's sorting out the stuff he's carrying, he remarks that he needs to wash his car.
But within seconds, washing the car will be the last thing on his mind.
Carrying a pet carrier, she squeezes between the cars on the driveway and her husband runs around the back to help her out.
Rather than trying to chase off the animal attacking his wife, the man picks it up.
"It's a bobcat! Oh my god, it's a bobcat," he yells, holding it up.
At least, that's what the husband in the video did, heaving the growling beast across his lawn like a sack of potatoes.
The cat appears startled at first to have been flung, but soon gathers itself and run back toward the driveway, presumably to resume its attack.
And indeed, he loudly threatens to shoot the animal before the video abruptly ends.
It is, as the person who posted it to Twitter captioned, a "wild 46 seconds." Although it was originally posted to TikTok, HuffPost reported that the account it was posted to had been disabled for violating TikTok's policies.
But since being shared on Twitter, the video has received millions of views.
They tend to be nocturnal animals as well, so attacking a human in the day points to something more serious, and Pender County Sheriff's Office later confirmed that a bobcat killed in the area where the attack occurred had tested positive for rabies.
Imogene Cancellare, a conservation biologist whose master’s research focused on bobcat genetics in western Texas, told HuffPost that "As with many carnivores in the U.S., if one approaches you, waving your arms, yelling, throwing things, acting big, and even taking a few steps as a bluff charge can deter an approaching animal.
"If the animal is sick, however, this may not be enough, as is the case with confirmed rabies attacks. In this case, getting the animal away from, or off of you, is the priority to minimize injury."
h/t: HuffPost
