An 80-year-old woman fought off a a bobcat mauling with a sickle as she was trimming her roses.
Elsie Dabrowski was in the garden of her New Hampshire home doing her nightly trip to lock up her chicken coop and do a bit of gardening.
She was in her rose bush cutting weeds with her sickle when a bobcat jumped on her, biting her face.
"All I could think of is 'Why is he doing this? Why is this stupid cat attacking me?"'
As her five dogs came to her rescue, she used her sickle on the cat to fight it off.
"He just kept scratching and biting, and then the dogs came and chased him off."
At that point the bobcat had already bitten into her face in five different places causing wounds that needed almost 60 stitches to close.
Her son, who lived nearby, heard the noise and came running down with his shotgun, killing the cat.
"It could have got my eye, could have got my jugular, could have got anything, you know. I feel very, very fortunate."
The bobcat had been tested positive for rabies and Elsie, her son and the dogs are getting shots.
Elsie also says that she understands why the bobcat attacked, even though he was the first he had ever seen.
"The animal was sick and he was looking for an easy meal with the chickens so he came here."
State wildlife experts say this is the first rabid bobcat attack confirmed in New Hampshire since 2013.