A string of fox attacks, vicious as it has been unpredictable, has presently befallen the once pleasant town of Brockton, Massachusetts, throwing the women and children of the locale into a certifiable panic.

Authorities, confused by the unnatural brazenness of the beasts involved, fear a particularly aggressive form of rabies.

The first victim, Isabel Robbins, a small girl of only nine, was bitten on Monday, July 20th. Robbins had been in-line skating directly outside of her family's home, when, without warning, a silver fox, moving so quickly little Isabel believed it to be a cat, darted from 'neath a neighbor's shrubbery and latched its teeth into one of the girl's skates.

Naturally, the child wailed a great wail, alerting her mother, Jennifer, to her savage attacker. Jennifer immediately snatched the girl's arm and, frantic and screaming herself, sprinted up Martland Avenue.

The shouts of both Robbins' startled a neighbor from his suburban stupor to bear witness to the terrifying scene: a frenzied mother followed by a frenzied daughter followed by a frenzied fox. Without consideration of his own safety, the heroic neighbor approached the animal, making a commotion and waving a tree branch like a spear. At this act of bravery, the fox darted off into the brush from whence it came, leaving Isabel shaken but unscathed.

Later that night, after undergoing medical evaluations, Isabel said, "I am never wearing those skates again." She added that the ordeal has made her wary to venture outside.

Three days after her attack, a fox was caught about a mile away from Isabel's home, though Brockton Animal Control has thus far been unable to ascertain whether that animal is the one that terrorized Isabel. The fox will be sent to Jamaica Plain and be tested for the rabies.

Thomas DeChellis, the animal control supervisor, says he believes the fox that attacked Isabel may not be rabid, but rather a mother protecting her pups. If this indeed proves to be the case, it brings this reporter some comfort to know that Isabel Robbins' mother and neighbor are equally adept at safeguarding their little ones.

Cord Jefferson is a writer-editor living in Brooklyn. Some of his other work has appeared in National Geographic, GOOD, The Root and on MTV.