Pender County couple's brush with rabid bobcat a harrowing experience

The day started out routine enough for one Pender County couple, stepping outside to their vehicles on a picturesque morning and greeting a jogger headed by their house.

What happened next was anything but normal, as everyone on the internet has already seen.

Kristi and Happy Wade were taking their cat to the vet, getting ready to enter an SUV. A strange growl can be heard before a wild bobcat ran across the street in their Burgaw subdivision, attacking Kristi.

Happy can be heard saying "oh my god! It's a bobcat! Oh my god!" on a video clip that went viral this week.

Happy grabs the bobcat and carries it away onto his front lawn, eventually throwing it. The bobcat wasn't deterred, Another neighbor came into their yard to try to help.

“I just remember seeing this face and it was trying to bite her right there in the side of the neck,” Happy told WECT. “And so I shoved my arm in and that’s how I ended up with it like this [above his head].”

Kristi was wounded, having been bitten several times. The bobcat did test positive for rabies. Happy shot the bobcat, wounding it, before it was eventually killed by law enforcement.

"He saved my life," Kristi said of Happy.

Kristi and Happy have gone through rabies treatment and are expected to be OK.

The Pender County Sheriff's Office posted a reminder on its Facebook page for pet owners to ensure their pets aren't exposed to rabies.