Posted on 11/01/2006 2:19:38 PM PST by presidio9
Letter carriers occasionally have to deal with angry dogs or maybe even a spider's nest in a mailbox, but a mean squirrel?
Barb Dougherty, a 30-year Postal Service employee, said she was attacked and bitten Monday by a squirrel while delivering mail in Oil City, about 75 miles north of Pittsburgh.
"It was a freak thing. It was traumatic," Dougherty told The Derrick in Oil City. "I saw it there on the porch, put the mail in the box and turned to walk away and it jumped on me."
The animal ran up her leg and onto her back, she said.
"I eventually got a hold of the tail and pulled it off me," Dougherty said. "No one was home at the house where I was delivering the mail, but the neighbor lady heard me screaming and came over."
An ambulance took Dougherty to the hospital, where she was treated for cuts and scratches. The squirrel was killed with a BB gun and sent to a lab to be tested for rabies. Dougherty was given the first series of rabies shots as a precaution.
Postal officials said the attack is extraordinary.
"In about 230 years of postal history, I bet it is not the first, but I've personally never heard of another squirrel biting," said Steve Kochersperger, spokesman for the Erie district.
Squirrels do not frequently bite people, said Regis Senko, who works for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Steve Jolley, a Postal Service manager in Oil City, said, "We are not issuing a squirrel alert, but everyone is aware of the incident."
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Again? This is at least the second time today.
Do you mean the squirrel threat is even worse than we thought?
Barb Dougherty, a 30-year Postal Service employee, said she was attacked and bitten Monday by a squirrel...
She's lucky it wasn't a Moose.
My sister .... oh, never mind.
It is very darned series! There are squirrels in my yard right now! And rabbits!
My advice is to stay indoors and hide all of your carrots and peanuts. Squirrels and rabbits are unpredictable predators. You never know just what is going to set them off.
Fortunately both ravens and owls patrol the area. Otherwise it would be a far more dangerous place. There are dogs now and then, but they are rightly cautious and don't do much to combat the threat. Ravens rule even over owls.
I never see squirrels or bunnys anymore ever since the coyotes moved into the neighborhood.
On the plus side, the cats seem to be disappearing too...
OMG. What on earth am I going to tell my wife? I had no idea these things were such dangerous predators.
Is no one safe?
I am sad and cry tears for the safety of our children.
Although we don't have coyotes as yet, we had some grizzly bears this summer. Might be that bears are preferable given a choice. Nice doggy!
Rabbits pretend to be cute and cuddly, but I have seem some things that would upset even internet-hardened surfers. They are extremely territorial and can enforce it.
Sounds like a Webb novel.
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