Rabid raccoon stages last assault

ENFIELD, Conn., Jan. 11 (UPI) -- An Enfield, Conn., woman is taking painful rabies shots but is satisfied the 40-pound raccoon that attacked her on her porch won't be biting ever again.

Beverly Lanouette, 48, and her 21-year-old daughter were sitting on their porch Monday night enjoying unseasonably warm weather when searing pain shot through Lanouette's right lower leg.

"There was a raccoon stuck to my leg and he was pretty big," Lanouette told the Manchester (Conn.) Journal Inquirer. "He was growling."

She swatted the raccoon with another chair but it remained on the porch growling at her as she and her daughter ran indoors. She called neighbors and police for help as the animal scratched at the door and she smacked it again with another chair, the newspaper said.

Her daughter's boyfriend found the raccoon nearby and killed it with several blows from a shovel.

Tuesday, state officials told Lanouette the 40-pound animal was rabid and she began the painful series of injections she said "hurt worse than the raccoon bite."

Health officials said the warm winter weather has caused wild and domestic animals to interact more, leading to the discoveries of more rabid raccoons.