Pet squirrel escapes and attacks Texas woman

KATY, Texas, May 22 (UPI) -- A Texas woman was forced to go to the hospital to get 11 stitches after her neighbor's pet squirrel got loose and attacked her.

Elizabeth Orzechowska received treatment for hand and back injuries at a hospital near Katy, after she was attacked by the two-pound animal while she was unloading groceries in her driveway.

"So, I looked down and it was a squirrel," Orzechowska told Local 2. "It started running up my back, started scratching my back and biting my back."

Orzechowska's neighbor brought the 1-year-old squirrel, B.B., home when she was just three weeks old.

"When I pull[ed] her from my neck she launched to my hand," Orzechowska told KCEN. "I had never seen that much blood before."

The owner has offered to pay Orzechowska's medical bills, but she is still looking at a fine from Harris County Animal Control and a Game Warden with Texas Parks and Wildlife for bringing home the wild animal.

B.B. was released into the wild to avoid being euthanized.