A rabid fox attacked a woman Wednesday night in Chesapeake.

This is the second rabid fox attack in the city in a week. The first occurred in the Greenbrier section of the city last Thursday.

In both cases, health officials say the foxes were infected with the potentially deadly disease.

Virginia Gustavson says in 33 years, she’s never seen a fox until Wednesday.

Gustavson took her dog, Norma Jean, out for a walk just before midnight on Willow Lake Road in Chesapeake. There, she saw what she thought was a big grey cat.

Norma Jean shied away from the animal and then what had been an uneventful Wednesday night took a sudden turn.

“Then it got closer and started chasing me all over the driveway,” recalled Gustavson.

Gustavson was bitten once and tried to make it to her sunroom, but tripped and fell. She dropped her dog’s leash and was bit again, and this time the teeth of the diseased creature sunk into her skin.

She grabbed her hounds leash and made it inside, thinking she had escaped the fox.

“I didn't look. I just slammed the door shut ‘cause I didn't want to look back.”

But the crazed animal had slipped inside her sunroom. It ran in circles and eventually turning on the fan.

After Animal Control was called out, the fox was euthanized and declared rabid.

Now, Gustavson has to get 50 shots around the wound on her right leg to look forward to, as well as a month long series of anti-rabies treatments.

It's an experience Gustavson says she could have done without and never wants to have again.

“It was like a nightmare, you know, to just have this thing keep coming at me.”