Posted on 11/01/2006 10:55:11 AM PST by dirtboy
OIL CITY, Pa. - 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."
lol
I was wondering what was the suitable caliber for squirrel.
Squirrel was trying to commit "suicide by postal worker," and got the only one who didn't pack a small arsenal on him in anticipation of, well, going postal...
What? No chance for the squirrel to offer a non-apology??
Any info on who shot the squirel with the BB gun? Has PETA issued a statement yet?
If they got up in a tree, I just pulled out the 16 gauge. Didn't feel like being sporting.
Here we go!..............
The perp figured soemting squirrely was going on, and so went postal...:-)
Before I clicked on this post it ended with this part
The animal ran up her leg and..............
hell!!! I had to see how that ended.
Pinging the Squirrel-hater...
Squirrel quagmire.
A friend of mine in PA opened his gas grill for the first time after the winter was over and was greeted by three hissing squirrels who had built a nest in it.
Is that the new name for Mailman? I never knew.
LOL Loader, 120mm Sabot!
Cell phone karma...
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