North Carolina man saves wife’s life in bobcat attack

A North Carolina couple’s home-security video went viral after they were attacked by a rabid bobcat.

“I won’t soon forget the look in that cat’s eyes,” Kristi Wade told the New York Times. “It had its sights set on me, and that’s when I ran.”

She and her husband, Happy Wade, suffered bites and scratches. Happy Wade, who has a concealed-carry permit for a pistol, shot and killed the animal.

The Pender county sheriff’s office confirmed that a bobcat was killed on 9 April in the Creekside subdivision in Burgaw and said testing at the North Carolina state laboratory of public health confirmed the animal was rabid.

The Wades were treated with antibiotics and a rabies vaccine.

Footage of the incident has amassed more than 12m views online.

At the start of the video, Happy Wade is seen carrying a tray of brownies and greeting a jogger while his wife holds their cat, Faith, in a carrier. Happy Wade says he needs to wash his car. As Kristi Wade approaches the car, a growl can be heard. Then the rabid bobcat pounces.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Wade screams, running between the couple’s cars as the bobcat sinks its teeth into her hand before crawling up her back and over her shoulder.

Her husband rushes over and tears the animal away, shouting: “Oh my God! It’s a bobcat!”

Happy Wade throws the bobcat across the yard and warns the jogger to stay back. Wade can be seen shouting expletives while chasing the beast, saying he will shoot it.

The clip ends there.

Bobcats are common around the US and usually prey on rodents, rabbits and reptiles. Ted Stankowich, a behavioral ecologist at California State University, Long Beach, told the Times the behavior seen in the North Carolina video was unusual.

“Any rabid animal is going to be far more aggressive around humans,” Stankowich said. “But a normal bobcat would typically not come into a neighborhood like that, into suburbia, let alone attack a person.”

Kristi Wade said her husband “saved my life. If he had not been there, I do not know where I’d be, or in what shape I’d have been in. I do not know how I would have fended it off myself.

“That’s just the kind of person he is. We’ve been married for 30 years. I met him when I was 15, and there was never a doubt in my life how much he loves me and how much he would do for me.”