Mass. police: raccoon attacked woman in bed

HINGHAM, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts woman is recovering after battling a rabid wild raccoon that awakened her in bed.

Seventy-three-year-old Ginny Ballou of Hingham says she was asleep Wednesday morning when she felt something on her face. She thought was her cat.

She said the raccoon clamped onto her face, biting her chin and lip. She managed to pry it off, and it left the room after she beat it with her bedside telephone.

Police and a state environmental officer trapped the animal, which was euthanized. The state health department said Thursday it tested positive for rabies.

Ballou has stitches on her face, and wounds on her hands. She's undergoing preventive rabies treatment. She believes the raccoon got in through a cat door.

She tells Boston's WBZ-TV, "It's something I'll never forget. It was that scary."

Cox Media Group