SUNAPEE, NH (WBZ/CNN) - An 80-year-old woman was out gardening when she was attacked by a rabid bobcat.
Her five dogs helped scare the bobcat away, but now she has dozens of stitches and a bandage over her face.
“I still can’t believe it happened,” Elsie Dabrowski said.
Dabrowski was cutting weeds near a rose bush when the bobcat jumped out.
“All I could think was ‘Why was he doing this? Why is this stupid cat attacking me?’” she said. “He just kept scratching and biting and by then, the dogs came and chased it off.”
She needed 60 stitches to sew up her wounds.
Her son heard the noise and brought a shotgun. He killed the bobcat, who testing later found was rabid.
The bobcat already had a face full of porcupine quills before it attacked her.
State wildlife experts say this is the first rabid bobcat confirmed in New Hampshire since 2013.
The bobcat population there has steadily grown since 1989, when hunting them was outlawed.
Copyright 2017 WBZ via CNN. All rights reserved.
