Raccoon bites North Carolina woman after sneaking into home through doggy door

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — An unusual encounter with a raccoon left a Raleigh woman needing rabies shots. She says the animal got into her house through her dog door.

A backyard camera captured a photo of a raccoon in Raleigh woman’s backyard, but just a few hours later that raccoon ended up much too close for comfort.

“I was upstairs sleeping, heard a ruckus downstairs,” recalled the woman, who asked not to be identified. “I found food on the floor, 2 broken glasses. And I was like, ‘What the heck happened here?’ I turned around, and there was this raccoon.”

The raccoon darted behind a chair during the August 29 incident.

For a while, the homeowner hoped the animal would leave the same way it came in, but when it eventually got close to the front door, she decided she’d try to get it out. She put on a pair of surgical gloves followed by a pair of metal mesh gloves — but they weren’t enough.

She says when she tried to grab the raccoon by the scruff of its neck, it nipped and scratched her hand right through the gloves.

“I should have just called animal control, locked myself in a room,” she said, regretting her decision to go after the raccoon herself.

After the raccoon ran off, she cleaned her wounds and went to the emergency room, where she was given her first round of rabies shots.

The woman will likely never know if the raccoon who entered her home is healthy or sick. Wake, Cumberland, Orange, and Moore counties have all reported rabies cases this summer in animals including foxes and raccoons.

Insurance documents show that just the first round of rabies shots will cost more than $1,200, after insurance. There will be more bills for the next three shots, but she knows she can’t take any chances.

“You have to do it,” she said. “Put that money towards doing this instead of a funeral for yourself.”

From now on, she hopes her backyard wildlife will stay in the backyard.

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