Incidents of letter carrier being attacked by household pets may not be so rare, but conflict with a squirrel may sound a bit offbeat.

Barb Dougherty, a 30-year-old Postal Service employee, said she was attacked and bitten Monday by a squirrel while delivering mail in Oil City, about 75 miles north of Pittsburgh.

"It was a freak thing. It was traumatic," Dougherty told The Derrick in Oil City. "I saw it there on the porch, put the mail in the box and turned to walk away and it jumped on me."

Dougherty said the animal ran up her leg and onto her back, leaving her with cuts and scratches. Her screams were heard by a woman in the neighboring home who came over for help and called the ambulance.

The squirrel was killed with a BB gun and sent to a lab to be tested for rabies. Dougherty was treated at the hospital for abrasions and given the first series of rabies shots as a precaution.