SOMERVILLE, Mass. (WFXT) — One Massachusetts woman had a frightening encounter with nature this past weekend.
Katherine Vanbuskirk says she’s occasionally seen raccoons in her neighborhood over the past few decades but never like the one she came face-to-face with on Saturday morning.
“Don’t go near them. They do attack,” she said. “They become monsters.”
Cut up and bruised, she relived the terrifying moments she was viciously attacked by the animal early Saturday morning.
The longtime Somerville native said she was letting her dogs Ruby and Blue out to the garden around 1 a .m. when all of a sudden a raccoon jumped at her face while she was on the deck.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
“It flew at me from several different directions,” Vanbuskirk said.
The raccoon clawed her face, scratched her arms and gnawed at her hands and legs while she desperately fought it off.
Each time though, she says it would just charge back even more aggressive.
Somehow, she was able to escape and close her deck door, bloodied but able to call 911.
“All I could do was scream ‘help me, help me,’” Vanbuskirk said.
She was given rabies shots and antibiotics at a nearby hospital, but her biggest concern was for Ruby, who still hadn’t been spotted since the attack.
She told us he was eventually found that morning cowering inside behind the TV.
“This is horrible. This is nightmare. I kept saying it to myself because I couldn’t find any other words, I just encountered a monster,” Vanbuskirk said.
she was spreading coyote urine across her garden Sunday to keep those animals away.
She said she believes the raccoon was feeding from her compost bin off the deck and wants others nearby to take extra precaution.
“If that changes my community, it’s all the better for me,” Vanbuskirk said.
Vanbuskirk said she’ll have to take medication daily for the foreseeable future, but she is expected to make a full recovery.
TRENDING STORIES:
- I-20 eastbound shut down for crash blocking all lanes
- Police seek 4 people after mass shooting that left 1 dead, 10 injured on Edgewood Ave
- Falcons legend Deion Sanders says he is cancer free after bladder removal surgery
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]