Imagine walking out of your front door in the most suburban neighborhood possible, about to open your car, and boom, y0u get attacked by a wild bobcat.
Well this terrifying nightmare became a reality for Kristi Wade and her husband at her home in Burgaw, North Carolina. According to USA Today, the wild animal attacked Kristi, bit her on the hand, along with her husband, Happy (sweet name by the way), who wrestled the bobcat and threw it across the yard after being bit three times himself.
To be honest, it looked pretty funny, and dad came off lookin’ like a heroic badass, but as it turns out, it had rabies and bit the couple up pretty good.
“It bit me on my hand, and the only reason I knew I got bit then was because I literally felt a tooth on my bone.”
The couple found out about 24-hours later that the bobcat was rabid, the first case the town had seen in over a year. Luckily enough, the Wade’s made it to the hospital in time, as they were treated with antibiotics, 35 shots in 14 days.
Brutal…
Kristi had this to say about the occurrence, and the time she spent at the hospital with over 20 puncture wounds:
“They picked arms and thighs and anywhere they could to get it in you. It was not fun, but it was necessary. I said to the nurse it was almost as bad as being attacked by the cat.”
The couple also noted that they eventually shot the rabid bobcat (you can see Happy draw his gun towards the end of the video) and they received some backlash for it:
“Unfortunately we did have to put the cat down, but that cat was suffering, and it was the right thing to do,.”
However, the couple seems to be in good spirits now, and Kristi is very thankful for her husband’s heroics:
“Someone asked me if I was surprised that Happy did that, and I said absolutely not. As long as I’ve known him, I always knew that if I was in a situation where I needed protecting, I knew that he would put me first.”
Happy also weighed in on the situation, and the fact that the video went viral:
“I’m pretty lucky that I married somebody that I feel that way about. Not everybody can say that. I just think I’m a loving husband, who was lucky enough to marry the right girl.
They’ve called us jokingly, ‘They’re celebrities,’ but we don’t feel like celebrities. We wish the video had never been shared, but it was, so now we’re dealing with it.”
It’s great to see that everybody’s doing well, and have fully recovered from this traumatic experience. At the end of the day, what kind of looked like a funny viral video turned out to be quite the nightmare for the folks involved.
Check out the video in case you missed it… the way Happy chucked that bobcat is something straight outta the movies.
More wild videos from RIFF Outdoors
Happy also joined Cable Smith on the Lone Star Outdoors Show to detail the nightmare experience.
