(NECN: Kristen Carosa) - It was a weekend a Brookfield, Mass. man won't soon forget. He walked into his garage Sunday morning and was attacked by a bobcat.
"He made a quick hiss and before the hiss was done he was on me,” says Roger Mundell Jr.
Cuts on Mundell’s face are the result of a face-to-face encounter with a bobcat.
Mundell was in his garage in his Brookfield home when he ran into the animal early Sunday morning.
He says he barely had time to think before it attacked.
"It jumped on to me, it gave me a bear hug, I was able to get my jacket off, throw it to the ground."
Mundell says the bobcat like the one pictured here chased him but he was able to get away.
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The animal then ran outside and attacked his 15-year-old nephew.
Mundell's wife Cindy called for help.
"He was wounded in the face, pretty cut up and then when the bobcat attacked his nephew he just ran outside after it and tackled it, wrestled it off him, I know don't how he did it, everything happened so fast."
Mundell says he pinned the bobcat to the ground in the driveway with a metal crutch.
He says the animal showed no signs of stopping. He says he had no other choice but to kill the bobcat.
"We finally went inside to get a weapon and shoot it because it was squirming all over the place, we had to shoot it, it would have done more harm."
The incident took less than two minutes. Brookfield police were among the first to respond.
Chief Michael Blanchard says when police arrived the bobcat had been shot.
“They had no other choice than to shoot it, if this was a rabid bobcat who's what could have happened if this animal continued.”
The animal was taken to a veterinary hospital and will be tested for rabies.
Meanwhile, Mundell, his wife Cindy and their nephew have all been treated just in case.
“It could have been a lot worse, it could have gotten away and come back again. We did all that we could and all the right things to stop it.”
