Rabid Fox Bites, Clings To Woman's Arm

Rabid Fox Bites, Clings To Woman's Arm

PHOENIX -- If she had to give the rabid fox that bit her a nickname, Michelle Felicetta would call it "Thrasher."

Felicetta was hiking a three-mile loop of trail at the base of Granite Mountain in Prescott, Ariz., on Monday when the fox approached her on the trail just like it was meeting her, she said.

"This fox made eye contact with me and started walking towards me," she said. "That's when I knew something was really wrong.

"I went to back up slowly, and as soon as I went to back up, it came and attacked my foot."

The fox grabbed hold of Felicetta's big toe, but she grabbed it by the neck before it could bite her knee. It bit her arm, instead.

"I was choking it with (one) hand," she said. "I was trying (to) get it off … Everything I tried -- he wouldn't let go, and I even considered trying to rip him off, but he had such a good hold it would have done damage."

With the fox hanging from her arm, Felicetta ran a mile back to her car. She managed to pry the fox off of her, wrapped it in her sweatshirt and threw it in the trunk of her car before driving to Yavapai Regional Medical Center.

"As soon as I saw blood, I knew it was probably rabid," she said. "I knew I had to do something."

When an animal control officer tried to take the fox out of the trunk at the hospital, it bit her, too.

"She thought she had the noose thing around its neck," Felicetta said. "But it slipped out and actually attacked her."

Both Felicetta and the animal control officer have to undergo a series of rabies vaccinations over the next few weeks.

Felicetta said the ordeal was "very hard" for her.

"I love animals; I love nature," she said. "I'm very respectful, but as soon as this incident happened I knew something was wrong with the fox."