Eddington Couple Attacked By Rabid Racoon While Walking Family Cat

Susan Burpee and her husband, Boyd, have lived at their home in Eddington for almost 30 years. It sits a little way back from Route 9, off a dirt road.

A few Sundays ago, Susan did something she's done hundreds of times over during the almost three decades at home: she went for a little morning walk. But this morning would turn out to be anything but ordinary.

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It was just about 9:30 in the morning, and the couple's 3-legged cat, Dante, wanted to go outside to sniff around and explore. He's typically not let out by himself, Susan says, because he only has 3 legs. So she decided to go out with him that day.

"He likes to go out in the yard, but where he's got three legs, and we live in the country,  I'd hate for anything to happen to him."

On that morning, Susan says she and Dante had made their way out to the garden, which is about 75 to 100 feet away from the house.

"I'm kind of checking to see if my ruhbarb is coming up, and my little cat is checking in a different part of the garden because he's got catnip coming up."

She said all of a sudden, she heard what sounded like a hiss coming from nearby. Wanting to know where the sound came from, Susan got up and went over towards Dante, who was near a little woodpile, and peeked around it, and saw that it was a raccoon, with porcupine quills in its face.

Knowing that raccoons are typically nocturnal, Burpee had a bad feeling that something was amiss and became concerned.

"My first thought was of my cat. I didn't want there to be a scuffle, and I wanted to get the cat to the house. So I went and scooped up my cat and started hurrying to the house."

The next thing Burpee knew, her cat Dante leapt out of her arms and took off towards the home.

"I think he figured 'You're on your own! I can run faster with three legs!' and he ran to the house and got up on the deck, and he was safe."

Susan, on the other hand, was not so lucky.

"I don't run so fast. I actually tripped and fell at first, and then I got up and started towards the house."

At this point, Burpee said she didn't think the raccoon was behind her because it appeared to her to have taken off in the opposite direction, towards the road.

"The next thing I know, he grabs me around the left leg, and he grabs on like I'm a tree. He grabs on with his front feet, and he muckles on tight! And there was no kicking him off. He was just there."

Susan, who says she was dressed in jeans, a long shirt, a vest, and some sneakers,  could feel the raccoon start to bite immediately.

"He's biting right through the jeans, into my calf. And I tried, grabbing his paws and pulling them off my leg. His claws were very sharp and sliced the top of my forearm right open."

Not only was Burpee trying to escape, but she was also yelling for help, hoping her husband Boyd, who had just returned the night before from a week in the hospital due to complications with Lymphoma, would hear her and come to her aid.

"I was thinking he might be able to hear me, so I am hollering at the top of my lungs, 'Help!' repeatedly, 'Help!' but he didn't hear me."

All she could do was continue to try to get the animal to release his grip on her.

"At one point, he started to let up, and I grabbed his muzzle in my hand and held it shut so he couldn't bite anymore. He still wouldn't get off my leg, so at one point, I headed to the house, and I dragged my leg with the raccoon on it to the house, which was another 50 feet away."

Still calling for help, at that point her husband noticed that the cat, Dante, wanted to come back in the house, so he opened the slider to let the cat in and heard her holler for help and came out immediately. He did manage to pull the raccoon off of Susan, but didn't want to let the animal go, because he knew it could be rabid and would need to be tested. So he instructed his wife to go get a rope and a tote.

"I got a rope, and I got a tote. Together, we were trying to get the rope around its head and around its feet, and we were going to put it in the tote. In doing that, the raccoon bites onto my husband's finger, and he goes right through the whole finger. And he won't let go, and he [Boyd] can't get his finger out, and it's really hurting 'cause it's hitting a nerve."

Burpee says her husband did the only thing he could think of to subdue the animal, and put his knee on the raccoon's throat. After a few more minutes of struggling, the raccoon ultimately gave up. The couple, assuming he had died, but not entirely sure, quickly put the animal in the tote, tied the lid to the top, and even put some heavy objects on it just to be sure it didn't get out while they were on route to the hospital. After a rapid cleaning of their wounds, they dashed into Bangor, from Eddington, to seek medical help.

"My husband was drivining and I was on the phone with the game warden."

The Burpees were told the warden would be in contact when he could find someone to come into Bangor and retrieve the animal from them. The couple went to one local walk-in clinic but were told to try elsewhere as that clinic did not have the proper rabies vaccine on hand.

They ended up at another local hospital, where medical personnel cleaned and tended to their wounds.

They were given tetanus boosters and antibiotics, but were told to wait until the results came back to start the rabies shot protocol, which consists of several shots spaced out over a period of days for multiple weeks.

Meanwhile, the raccoon's body was picked up by a warden and transported to Augusta for rabies testing.

The couple went home. Susan says the next day was a holiday, and the day after that, she got a call saying some crucial piece of equipment they needed to run the rabies test was malfunctioning, so the animal would have to be transported to Massachusetts to be evaluated. Not willing to chance it and wait any longer, the Burpees headed back to the hospital to start the rabies shot protocol.

By Thursday, April 23rd, it was confirmed that the animal had been rabid.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, if you've never been vaccinated for rabies before, multiple shots over a series of days are required to treat the disease.

"You will need 4 doses of the vaccine spread out over 14 days, given on Days 0, 3, 7, and 14. You will also receive an additional medication called Human Rabies Immune Globulin (HRIG) on Day 0."

Susan said her husband required one more than normal because he was immunocompromised due to his recent hospitalization and lymphoma treatment.

The couple has lived in their Eddington home since the late 1990s, and Susan says she's never even thought twice about the danger that could be right in her own dooryard.

"I've always gone out for walks, usually by myself or one of the cats, and would think nothing of it. But now I do...We have a neighbor who's a biologist and retired veterinarian, and she's given us more advice than anyone. She suggested getting a byrna, which is like a small pistol. It doesn't kill anything. It shoots like little round white marbles and pepper spray. She suggested getting one of those to have on you when you're outside, and that will just knock them back so that you can get to safety. It wouldn't kill it, just knock it back."

She says things could have turned out so much worse, had it not been her but a child out there instead.

"It could have really done a number on either a little dog or a kid. I mean, it did a number on my leg."

Susan says she won't be going outside without some form of protection from this point forward, just in case.

"I don't want to kill anything. I don't really want a gun, but I don't feel safe in my own yard anymore, and I want to feel safe, and I want to go outside, but now I'm a little nervous about it...For me, I just know that I want to have some sort of protection now when I go outside, and I will."

Thankfully for the Burpees, their wounds are healing, and they're both feeling ok. They finished their shots this week.

Stacie Poulin, Field Epidemiologist for the CDC in Penobscot and Piscataquis Counties, says to date this year, there has only been one confirmed case of Rabies in Penobscot County, and the Eddington case was it.

Statewide, there have been 11 confirmed cases of the virus in Maine, the majority of which have been raccoons in York County.

Pouln says the trends this month compared to last year in May are only up slightly to 3 cases this year, from last year's 2. She says at the moment, the state is in what's called "Bat Season," with most interactions occurring between humans and bats.

She says folks in heavily wooded rural areas should definitely be on the lookout for any strange behavior from animals, both wild and domestic. If they believe there might be a wild animal exhibiting signs of rabies, they should call their local game warden. If they think a domestic animal may have been exposed, they should take it to their vet for a rabies booster.

Poulin says now that the weather is warming up, and animals are on the move, there's a higher chance of people encountering wild animals, so they should always be on the lookout and prepared.

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If your kids play outside, take the time to remind them to stay away from animals that are unfamiliar or behaving strangely.

If you let your animals outside to do their business, you may want to keep a close eye on them, as well.

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For the latest information on rabies, how to identify it, what to do in case of an animal attack, and to track where rabies outbreaks have occurred across the state, you can check out the State of Maine's website by clicking here.