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She Left Doggy Door Open for Her Pet. Something Else Got In

Julie Loflin of Greensboro, NC, holds onto rabid fox for 12 minutes after it attacks her in bed
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 23, 2020 10:34 AM CDT
Updated Jul 26, 2020 1:20 PM CDT

A North Carolina woman is shaken after a weekend encounter with an unwelcome visitor. WGHP reports Julie Loflin was settled in her bed last Sunday night when she saw a discomforting sight: a fox slip into her home from the patio through a doggy door used by her 9-year-old beagle, Duchess. The next thing she knew, she spotted the fox's ears sweeping across the room, then up onto her bed. "I don't know what else you could do," she says in an emotional interview. "I mean, maybe throw a pillow at it or throw a blanket over it." But she didn't have time to react, and the animal latched onto her foot. After prying it off, Loflin grabbed the fox and held onto it as she called 911.

"Right on my bed, I've got my hand around his neck!" she said to the dispatcher in her call. She held onto the fox for 12 minutes, at which point police arrived, broke down her patio door, and removed the fox. "I was praying that I would live," she now says. The fox did turn out to have rabies, and Loflin has since undergone a battery of shots, including a rabies vaccine. This is the eighth confirmed rabies case in Greensboro this year. Neighbors say they've seen foxes roaming around areas close to people's homes. Animal control officials say the warmer weather or a quest to find food could be drawing the foxes out of their usual habitats. As for Loflin, she says she won't be leaving her doggy door open anymore. (More foxes stories.)

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