Hours after a fox attacked the first of three women in Burlington, Massachusetts, it was shot and killed by an animal control officer.
The first attack happened around 8 a.m. Tuesday. Jeannette Bowler had just grabbed a Wiffle ball bat to shake out some water from a tarp outside her home.
"Heard the rocks moving behind me," said Bowler. "I turned quick and the fox was coming at me."
She was lucky she had the bat.
"I was just kind of going crazy with this bat," said Bowler. "It was just coming at me, it just didn't back down."
The fox scurried off.
A few minutes later, right across the street, neighbor Alexandra Laverty was walking her daughter to the bus stop when the fox lunged right at them.
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She started to fight it off with her daughter's backpack as she told her daughter to run back home.
"Unfortunately, it caught me," said Laverty. "Tripped me, and I went down to the ground. When I flipped over, it got a hold of my calf."
She was bitten in both legs and the fox took off.
By early afternoon, the fox made it about a mile away, into Marisa Donnelly's backyard shed.
"He came right over to me, and went to grab my Croc, grab my foot, so I kicked him," said Donnelly. "He came again, so I kicked him harder, knocked him off his feet. He hit the wall."
Donnelly tripped as she tried to run, and the fox attacked again while she was on the ground, biting her foot.
"So I used my other foot to push down on his head against the ground," said Donnelly.
Then came a brief tug of war.
"He tugged and pulled my whole Croc and sock right off my foot," said Donnelly.
The fox then scampered off with her shoe and sock.
When animal control found the fox, it started to charge at the officer. The officer fired his gun and the fox was killed.
The fox has tested positive for rabies.
Both women who were bitten are already taking rabies shots.
