Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 17, 1995                   TAG: 9502170053
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

RABID SKUNK ATTACKS DOG

"Bootsie was screaming and yelping, and that polecat was going after her back end, tearing her all to pieces," Scruggs said.

Scruggs' neighbor saw Bootsie being attacked and shot the skunk with his shotgun. Then he took a long stick, picked up the dead animal and threw it over a back fence.

Scruggs, who lives in the Mount Pleasant area of Franklin County, got in touch with the Health Department. They told him to carefully cut off the skunk's head so that they could test brain tissue for rabies.

Scruggs bagged the head and hung it from his clothesline - "It was cold enough outside to preserve it," he said.

Thursday, the Health Department confirmed what Scruggs had suspected: The skunk was rabid.

Bootsie, a 30-pound Australian blue heeler, got her rabies vaccination in November, but Scruggs took her to the veterinarian for a booster shot just in case.

"She's been pretty nervous since then," Scruggs said, "but she'll be fine."

He'll have to lock Bootsie in a cage for 90 days, but Scruggs is more concerned about the children who live in his area.

"I'm fearful one of these kids will get too close to a rabid skunk or something, and it'll just grab them," he said.

The last report of a rabid animal found in Franklin County was in May 1993, when a raccoon was found dying near a farmer's fence.

Rabies can be transmitted through an animal's saliva or spinal fluid and can be deadly if not treated.