A retired nurse thought she was going to be 'eaten alive' when she was attacked by a rabid fox in her own front yard in broad daylight - leaving her too frightened to leave her house for a week.
Shocking footage shows the moment Sherri Russo was pounced on and repeatedly bitten by the crazed mammal and her desperately trying to kick and shake it free.
But the dogged grey fox clung on, sinking its fangs into the 61-year-old's leg and hand during the frenzied almost-30-second attack last month.
It was only when a hero neighbour armed with a large stick ran towards the beast that it released a screaming Sherri from its grip before slinking away.
The neighbour managed to get Sherri into his car and to the hospital where the 16 puncture wounds on her left leg and right hand were cleaned and dressed.
There, the mum-of-one was given the first of four rabies vaccines, a tetanus jab, immune globulin injections and was prescribed a series of antibiotics to tackle the infection.
While she was being treated in hospital, the fox was killed and tests at a nearby veterinary college confirmed it had tested positive for rabies.
Sherri, who was left so scared by the ordeal that she was unable to leave her house for a week, is now urging people to be aware of their surroundings and animals in their community.
Sherri, from Caroline, New York, US, said: "I was so fearful that he was going to knock me over, he was going to attack my face and I was going to be eaten in my front yard.
"When I got the first nip on the outside of my leg, I actually thought it was our neighbour's dog.
"I lifted my leg and was getting ready to say 'hey, what are you doing?' and shoo him away but I looked down and I saw this grey fox.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I realise there was a rabid fox [there].
"When I poked him away and he came back at me I realised that something bad was going to happen, and then it happened. Then it kept happening.
"When I reached down to grab him off my leg and yank him away, that's when he took a hold of between my thumb and my forefinger and he just chomped down on me.
"I was trying to get him off and the whole time I was screaming louder than I knew I could.
"Thankfully my neighbour was out on his lawn tractor and heard me, he jumped over his fence and came running over with the stick.
"The fox must have seen him and just as I was able to get that last kick in, he was distracted and ran off."
Sherri walked into her front yard at 2.30pm on July 25th while on the phone when the furry fiend launched an unprovoked attack.
Sherri, who is married to 61-year-old gas company operations manager Paul Russo, said: "The first bite I felt a little nip on the outside aspect of my knee area on my left leg.
"When he reacted to me [defending myself] he went a couple of inches higher on the same side of my leg. He broke through my jeans.
"That was the first of three real punctures. I'm not sure how I got him off there but there was some fancy footwork going on.
"Then he got the better of me and he got the inside of my left leg, right behind my knee where it bends.
"I grabbed him to pull him off there, there were pretty good size stripes where the fangs slid through my skin.
"He was a little guy but he was just relentless, he just kept coming back and each time he did I started to lose a little more confidence in my ability to ward him off.
"While this was happening I was just thinking 'this has got to be a rabid fox and I'm really in a lot of trouble'.
"He was a regular-sized fox but at the time he may as well have been a mammoth, especially when he had latched onto my hand and wouldn't let go.
"I was screaming and just calling out for help. It felt like forever, for me it was an entire lifetime, but when I watched the clip it really didn't last very long."
Thankfully, Sherri's neighbour was nearby and leapt into an action - using a stick to drive the fox off.
The neighbour then drove her to a nearby hospital where she was treated for 16 puncture wounds, 12 of which were deep enough to be "oozing awful things".
Meanwhile, animal officials tracked the fierce creature and put it down before its corpse was taken to Cornell University's veterinarian college - where vets confirmed the canine had rabies.
