A Dramatic Fox Attack

An Arizona woman was attacked by a fox. Knowing she’d want the fox tested for rabies, she ran a mile with it clamped onto her arm, then tossed it into the trunk of her car and drove to the hospital. The fox also bit an animal control officer.

This has been a busy year for fox attacks, but I haven’t heard one quite like this before. Foxes almost never attack people except when rabid. Animals can react to rabies in different ways, but rabid canids (dog-like animals) generally go through a violent phase. Wolves and large dogs can be incredibly dangerous when rabid, attacking dozens of people before the disease disables and kills them.

The photo shows the rabies virus as seen with a microscope.

(Thanks to Carole for the news tip.)

Blair's Widow

In 1933, the intrepid Dr. Allan Blair became one of the first to experiment with the bite of the black widow spider. His test subject was himself. His scientific triumph nearly killed him. Here, courtesy of Dr. Blair's daughter Pat Krause, is a photo of the very spider that bit him.

I wrote about Blair and his experiment in The Red Hourglass. Here's an excerpt.