Rabies tests came back negative on a chipmunk that last week bit a 9-year-old New Canaan girl on the finger, officials say.
It happened Thursday in the yard of a Richmond Hill Road home, according to Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control Unit.
The girl had been playing with a chipmunk that, in retrospect, appeared somewhat sickly, when the animal bit her, drawing blood, Kleinschmitt said.
Animal Control found the chipmunk’s body in the yard the following day and “it looked like an animal had tried to catch it, like a cat,” she said.
“From the injuries I saw on the critter, that’s probably why it was not able to get away from [the girl]—it was already injured and dying,” Kleinschmitt said.
Specifically, the chipmunk had two puncture wounds on it that ran through the entire body.
“It was already dying and that’s why it didn’t run away from the girl,” Kleinschmitt said. “You don’t normally catch a chipmunk.”
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A Carter Street horse on Monday morning was cleared following a 2-week home quarantine after the animal bit a child on the arm, officials say.
The 15-year-old gelding bit the child at about 4 p.m. on May 18, bruising the youth’s left arm, Kleinschmitt said.
The animal was up-to-date on its shots and is not considered dangerous, she said.