Bobcat

Texas Bobcat at Brazos Bend, originally uploaded by mac on a mac.

A couple was attacked by a rabid bobcat in Arizona. Ouch! From Allie at the Sierra blogging post.

But it does happen. Rich Thompson and Katrina Mangin met the bobcat version last weekend in the Santa Rita mountains. The couple was attacked by a rabid bobcat while hiking near Tucson, AZ. Thompson was eventually able to kill it with a geologist’s hammer, but not before they both got pretty scratched up. From the AP article…

Thompson said he knew the cat was rabid the moment he saw it staring at him and Katrina Mangin in the Santa Rita Mountains. He said they tried to get away but the bobcat pursued them, lunging at Mangin, climbing up her legs and wrapping its body around her, clawing and biting.

The couple fought off the bobcat, but it continued attacking and jumped on Thompson’s back. “I hit it with the backpack over my shoulder,” he said. The cat fell to the dirt and lunged again. “It attacked me again, and I threw it down.”

Rabid animals become desperate, mentally deranged, and dangerously aggressive. Rabies drove this normally reclusive bobcat literally insane by destroying its brain.

Allie's article has some good info on rabid animals too.