MOIRA — A 56-year-old Moira man fought off a vicious attack by a deer Friday afternoon, possibly saving his own life.

Gerald A. Dabiew was loading wood into a front-end loader in his yard on Best Road when he noticed a large, 10-point buck rubbing against a tree across the road.

“I saw something out of the corner of my eye,” said Dabiew, who then watched the deer enter the roadway. “He looked toward me, and he wasn’t but 20 or 30 feet away. He put his head down and dove right toward.

“He was moving, and I didn’t have time to do anything. All I thought was ‘grab those horns.’”

Dabiew, who is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs about 230 pounds, grasped on to the animal’s antlers and wrapped his legs around its neck. But the deer lifted him up and began repeatedly slamming Dabiew onto the ground, ramming him with the large rack.

“He kept pushing and twisting on me. I knew that if he kept me down there, I was dead. So I fought with everything I had. I had his nose down between my legs, and I held him tight to me.”

But the deer kept lifting him and slamming him to the ground. At one point, the animal smashed him against a nearby tree stump.

By his estimates, Dabiew’s encounter with the angry buck lasted about 20 minutes, his mind racing for the duration.

“I remember telling him, ‘You’re not going to kill me out here!’”

Dabiew was home alone at the time, so his calls for help went unanswered.

“I screamed and screamed for help. My throat dried right out, and I couldn’t scream anymore.”

The fracas went on so long that both the deer and Dabiew had to stop to catch their breaths. Dabiew could hear the animal breathing deeply through its nose as he clenched it with his legs.

Dabiew looked for anything within reach that he could use to fight off the animal, but every time he started to loosen his grip, the animal began battering him.

“I knew if I let him go he would be right on me again.”

Slowly, Dabiew realized that he, himself, was becoming exhausted.