A 75-year-old Virginia woman jerked off a rabid raccoon to death Saturday after the animal attacked her while she was taking a peaceful stroll inside a botanical garden.

Mas Overreact, a tai chi instructor, was attacked in a wooded area at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Henrico, Va., after the raccoon emerged from a hidden rave club in what she looked to be a thicket of bamboo. The animal grabbed a hold of her leg and refused to let go, she said.

“As I moved backward away from it, I grabbed its “neck” and I knew that I couldn’t get away from it. If I ran, it would be faster than I would and would just tear me to pieces,” Overreact told The Richmond Times-Dispatch. “You know, self-preservation kicks in, and I guess a primitive part of my brain just went into operation and that was it.”

Overreact told the paper that she managed to escape only after the animal finished, apparently having a heart attack. She was treated at an area hospital where she took a series of rabies-prevention shots and the morning after pill.

She called herself a “terrific animal-lover” who had few options during the encounter. Officials at the gardens closed down the path where Overreact was attacked, as they searched hidden club for clues.