North Carolina Man's Quick Thinking Saves His Wife from a Rabid Bobcat Attack

Glenn Garner
·2 min read
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Sam Greenwood/Getty

A North Carolina couple's peaceful morning was interrupted by a rabid bobcat attack earlier this month, which was caught on video.

On April 9, Kristi Wade and her husband, Happy Wade, were walking to their car when the animal attacked Kristi on the couple's driveway. Happy ran to his wife's defense, pulling the bobcat off Kristi's back and throwing it to the ground before shooting it, according to WECT 6 News.

Testing of the bobcat's body confirmed that the animal had rabies. Happy and Kristi were both scratched and bitten multiple times during the encounter. Each of the Wades received 30 shots after the animal attack to protect them from rabies.

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"In my head, I knew it had already attacked two people," Happy said. "If it had attacked somebody else and I didn't do something, morally, it would have bothered me for a long time. It was hurting my wife, and I didn't want it to."

Happy said that he was "not happy" he had to shoot the bobcat. "We don't take any pleasure that I shot the cat," he added, noting that he and Kristi serve on the board of the Pender County Humane Society Golf Tournament.

Kristi was just grateful her husband intervened. "He saved my life," she said. "I don't know where I'd be or what sort of shape I'd be in had he not been there."

After Happy shot and wounded the cat, it hid behind the tire of their vehicle, before it was eventually killed by law enforcement.

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The Pender County Sheriff's Department subsequently notified residents of the bobcat's positive rabies test, reminding them that it's state law to have their pets vaccinated against rabies.

"While wildlife is more likely to be rabid than domestic animals in the United States, the amount of human contact with domestic animals greatly exceeds the amount of contact with wildlife," they wrote in a Facebook post.