An 80-year-old woman fought a bobcat with a garden sickle — and says it’s no big deal

A rabid bobcat picked the wrong elderly grandmother to attack in Sunapee, New Hampshire, last weekend.

Elsie Dabrowski was doing some last-minute weeding before sunset outside her home on June 25 when the animal mauled her face, throat and back, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.

“All I could think of is ‘why is he doing this, why is this stupid cat attacking me?’” Dabrowski told CBS Boston.

According to the Associated Press, Dabrowski was eventually able to beat the animal away from her with the help of her sickle and her two dogs. Her son heard the commotion and came outside before killing the bobcat with a shotgun, according to the AP.

The state’s Fish and Game Department later confirmed the bobcat had rabies, which explains why it attacked her in the first placed, according to WCVB.

In the hospital, Dabrowski received 50 stitches and several rabies shots, according to WCVB. However, she saw the attack as more of a close call than anything else.

“It could have got my eye. Could have got my jugular, the way he was biting. Could have got anything, you know? God is good,” Dabrowski told WCVB.

Dabrowski’s son says that’s just the way his mother, a former Marine, is.

“She’s a tough cookie,” he told Time.

Sure enough, within the week, Dabrowski, who is retired, was back to gardening and delivering eggs to neighbors, and she told Time she’s not worried about another attack.

“You just have to think that it was a one-time thing and get over it. Just get over it,” she told Time. “It could’ve been so much worse.

“Things have to get done. I just make myself get up and go.”

This story was originally published July 2, 2017 at 9:05 PM with the headline "An 80-year-old woman fought a bobcat with a garden sickle — and says it’s no big deal."