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A 12-year-old Rehoboth boy was bitten on the leg and hand on Monday night by what animal control officers believe was a fisher cat.

Wes Brown said he was throwing a football in his backyard with his cousin when he saw an animal coming toward him.

"I couldn't exactly see it because it was at night but it looked gray and it had pointy ears," he said.

At first, Brown thought it was a cat, but then it attacked him.

Brown said the animal latched onto his leg.
He ran into the house and used the door to get the animal off.

"It kept coming in and kept coming after me so I shut the door," he said.

His parents started throwing tools at the animal to scare it away.


"Adrenaline -- you just want to help your baby. That's what moms think," said Stephanie Brown, Wes's mother.

Rehoboth's Animal Control officer, Jane Foster, put a trap at the home with the hope of catching the fisher cat.

"We could never find that particular animal unless he comes back," she said.

Foster said wild animals usually only come close when people leave out food.

"We don't feed the animals. We don't feed our pets outside," Stephanie Brown said.


Brown was treated for his injuries and is being treated for rabies as a precaution.

He said he didn't think twice about fighting back.

"I thought if I didn't fight it off, it would have got worse," Brown said.