This story by Liz Sauchelli was published by the Valley News on Dec. 13.
[W]HITE RIVER JUNCTION — A bobcat that attacked two women in Hartford on Wednesday before it was shot dead by a game warden has tested positive for rabies.
The bobcat was a 25-pound adult female, said Col. Jason Batchelder, director of enforcement for the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. It caused serious, non-life threatening injuries to the two victims, officials said.
Officers are not searching for additional bobcats and are not concerned that others might be rabid, given their solitary nature, Batchelder said.
Batchelder said the two victims likely began receiving treatment for rabies at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center yesterday after the attack.
The first reported victim was attacked while sitting on a porch outside her apartment complex on Candlelight Terrace in Wilder. She was bitten on her legs and lower back. A second woman was bitten on the hand near a state office building on Prospect Street in downtown White River Junction about an hour later.
As wardens were investigating the first attack and trying to track the animal, a report came in about the second. A game warden shot the bobcat after it charged at him from underneath a parked car.
