[Impy]

Squirrel probably had rabies.

[sinanju]

Yup. Rabies almost certainly. Good thing you let discretion be the better part of valor.

Hmmmm, too bad you couldn’t introduce it to Obama. Jimmah had his Killer Rabbit moment after all...

[PLMerite]

Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking, too.

[FrogMom]

Just had this conversation with new-to-the-area grandson yesterday. Told him if an animal acts differently than he expects, go the other way!

[jwparkerjr]

Squirrels almost never have rabies. True, any warm-blooded animal is susceptible to rabies, but squirrels are seldom, if ever, found to be rabid. I say “if ever” because the last time I checked I couldn't find a case of a squirrel with rabies. It's been a few years and it could have changed since then, but at the time I researched it pretty carefully. I was the PA at a rural clinic with no doctors in the entire four county area and we had a gentleman sent to us by a nearby teaching hospital to receive a series of rabies shots and I came across that interesting fact. Dogs do it, cats do it, even pigs do it, but I could find nary a reported case of a squirrel with rabies.

Maybe someone here is more up to date in the area of rabies and can correct me.

Rabid animals seldom show the determination described by this account.

Anyone?

[heartwood]

Baby had peanut butter.

[Jet Jaguar]

Ping

[Salamander]

HIGHLY doubtful.

http://rabies.emedtv.com/rabies/rabies-and-squirrels.html

As someone else wrote, they are ~very~ territorial and possessive and there was probably something visual or an odor about the women or child that it found “threatening”.

This deer made the mistake of encroaching upon this squirrel’s food source.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRBVh8ZPUyg

The “grunt” is a classic squirrel warning call.

Don’t have a clue what “set it off” but something about them did.

They are also scary smart.

A young one shows up in my maple trees in front of the picture window every morning at dawn with the sole purpose of intentionally playing in the branches and provoking my dogs into apoplectic fits.

It knows it’s untouchable and this is some sort of “game” to it.

If it hears the back door open, it vanishes up onto the roof of the house where the dogs can’t see it or get to it.

[R. Scott]

She had peanuts in the stroller? I’ve never heard of a rabid squirrel.