(CNN) DeDe Phillips' first thought when a bobcat attacked in her driveway in Georgia was "I wasn't dying today," she says.

As the large feline clawed her, the adrenaline kicked in and she decided to strangle it, she says.

Phillips, 46, told CNN affiliate WGCL that the animal attacked on June 7 at her home in Hart County -- about 110 miles northeast of Atlanta.

She had just put a "Women Who Behave Rarely Make History" sticker on the back of her new truck, she says. When she returned outside to take a picture, she encountered the animal.

"As soon as it took the first step, I was in trouble and I knew it," Phillips told the affiliate. Knowing that her 5-year old granddaughter was sleeping inside the home, she took action after the bobcat jumped on her, she says.

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