Neither snow nor rain nor killer squirrels...

**Darlene** · 11-02-2006, 07:37 AM

nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"

Mean squirrel attacks Pa. letter carrier
Wed Nov 1, 5:12 PM ET

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."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061101/...ed_by_squirrel

**FrugalMomof3** · 11-02-2006, 07:44 AM

OMG I am glad she is ok, that's freaky though

**JustJoy** · 11-02-2006, 08:18 AM

OMG! Poor woman.

**Nada.Leona** · 11-02-2006, 06:17 PM

Well, they chatter and scold people so severely anytime you get too close. Not really a surprise. Poor thing, though, that must've been tramatic!

**Stella** · 11-02-2006, 10:50 PM

Freaky. I wonder if it did have rabies to act that weird. The "squirrel alert" made me laugh. There were squirrels around here that were attacking people at the park because they were feeding them. Now they don't allow food at the park anymore.

**emily_hope** · 11-02-2006, 11:08 PM

I would think it was rabied to have done that. Most of the time they run.

**suzysaver** · 11-03-2006, 01:11 AM

My mom and dad had a squirrel at there old house that was a little weird. This thing would get really close sometimes and scare us. He never bit anyone, but my dad started throwing things at it...because he was afraid it might someday. We used to call him syco squirrel. He just stopped showing up one day.

**MarshHen** · 11-18-2006, 02:49 PM

I have raised quite a few squirrel babies before and they are easily tamed. The males go into rut (heat) in the fall and early spring and can be very aggressive, especially if there are females around. Some females can be aggressive as well if they have a nest of little ones close by, but they usually just bark and do tail flips as a warning. I have only had to keep one squirrel that I have raised due to a injury he sustained when the nest he was in was cut down and his back legs were mangled. He lived in a large pen for 6 years and was very tame and sweet except for the two rut seasons he had every fall and early summer which lasted for two weeks each time. Every other squirrel I have bottle fed was released after weaning.