Fox attacks 6-year-old girl, woman in Worcester neighborhood

Police in Worcester, Massachusetts, said there were two separate fox attacks in less than 24 hours in the same neighborhood. Now a 6-year-old girl and a grandmother are both being treated for rabies as a precaution.

At just 6 years old, Janessa Pagan-Williams can already point to every place a fox got to her. The bandages, cuts and stitches were still fresh from the terrifying attack on Jones Street on Wednesday evening.

Janessa says she was on her friend's bike in the backyard when the animal lunged at her, knocking her to the ground.

"Really, really scared. It felt like a dream, and I was in the hospital," Janessa said. "I saw it and it looked at me back and it growled at me, and it came charging at me and bit my leg and made me fall off the bike."

The second grader's screams sent her brother running outside where he finally kicked the fox away.

"It bit really hard. It went deep, deep, deep to the tissue," added the child.

Janessa wasn't the only one attacked in the neighborhood. Around the corner on Granite Street, a grandmother, Zena Bottom, was bitten on her foot Thursday morning.

"When it was on my foot, I was trying to shake it off, shake it off, shake it off like this but it wouldn't come off so I reached down and yanked it off of my foot and I threw it," said Bottom.

She had heard her daughter and infant grandbabies screaming outside and didn't hesitate. "I wouldn't hesitate," said Bottom. "I'm glad it was me and not them, how about that."

Worcester Police say the fox was found and put down. Both victims had to get the rabies vaccine.

Now both are home sharing a warning and a little gratitude. "Watch out for your children and make sure that there's no wild animals around," said Bottom.

Worcester Police say the fox will be sent to the state for testing.