Bleeding Like Crazy': Bobcat Shot Dead After Attacking MA Man In His Own Garage

BROOKFIELD, Mass. (TheBlaze/AP) -- A man in Massachusetts says all he heard was a hiss before a bobcat pounced on him in his own garage, sinking its teeth into his face and its claws in his back.

"It was on me in a split second," he said following the attack. "I have bite marks in my eyelid, up my forehead. It scratched my back. I was bleeding like crazy."

Photo Credit: AP

Roger Mundell Jr. went into the garage in Brookfield on Sunday morning to fetch some tie-down straps for a friend when the animal attacked. The Boston Globe has more:

On Sunday, Mundell, 53, said he was thankful that it was him, not his wife or nephew, who walked into the garage.

“It would have killed my wife,” he said. “I know it would have.”

Mundell said he was lucky to be wearing a thick jacket. When the bobcat attacked him, he managed to pull the jacket — with the bobcat clinging to it — over his head, throwing the 40-pound animal off. Bleeding, he ran for the door. As he slammed it behind him, he heard the bobcat thud into the glass.

It then ran out of the garage and bit Mundell's 15-year-old nephew on the arms and back.

Mundell and his wife pinned the cat to the ground and shot it dead with a Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 380.

Photo Credit: AP

Mundell, his nephew and his wife, are being treated for rabies. His wife wasn't bitten, but got the animal's blood on her.

State Environmental Police took the bobcat to have it tested for rabies, which they think is likely given its unusual behavior.

"This is completely out of character for a bobcat, even to be in the garage in the first place," said Tom French, assistant director for the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, according to The Boston Globe. "It is completely consistent with an animal that may have rabies."