His festive spirit then turns into instant horror as he falls backwards onto the carpet, no doubt never to consider himself a "cat person" again.
The incident resulted in a trip to the doctor, where Woodward was given stitches.
The video was posted to Facebook by his friend Jessica Freeman. It instantly went viral, with almost 550,000 shares on Facebook, and over 174,000 likes.
Some people questioned whether a history of abuse had prompted the feline's furious behaviour, prompting Freeman to add a disclaimer.
"The cat lives in a good home," she wrote. "Plenty of pictures of him being spoiled. He's a jerk.
"Seriously. This is not the only person he's attacked. He wasn't 'provoked'.
"A grown up was acting overly excited as a joke and the cat walked across the room then back. He wasn't "startled". You can clearly see him walk up and calmly sit while planning his attack."
She clarified that the cat didn't belong to her, therefore she had no reason to defend or blame it.
"No reason for me to lie. He is a jerk. Take your threats somewhere else. You can report me for animal abuse all you want. It's. Not. Mine. And it's not abused.
"A human was attacked here, not a cat.
"Only in 2016 would people blame a person who didn't touch an animal for getting attacked by said animal bc they were excited."
Watch the full video below.
