Something fishy about this story.
Cats don’t ‘attack’.
The man was probably trying to kill the cat and the cat fought for its life.
One of our local sheriff’s deputies was attacked by a cat on a home call.
The deputy couldn’t fight it off, and finally shot it.
I’d say you’re right. I catsit for my son once and Kitty was not sociable. She was hiding behind a mattress in a storage room. I felt sorry for her and was going to pet her. I knew she was declawed so I reached in to pet her. She hissed and growled at me. I tried it again and she bit me. I learned my lesson. She wanted to be left alone so after that I just checked to make sure she was ok and then left her alone. Eventually she learned to love me but it was her decision, not mine.