North Little Rock squirrel attack sends bloodied grandmother and mom to the ER

Two Central Arkansas women are emotionally traumatized but physically OK after suffering a freak squirrel attack while putting up birthday decorations in a North Little Rock yard Thursday.

It was the eve of Wendy Miller’s daughter’s 18th birthday, and Miller had enlisted the help of her own mother to install an oversized celebratory cardboard sign in a yard in the Oak Grove neighborhood of North Little Rock.

But as the two women fussed with tape and signposts at the tailgate of an SUV in the driveway around 5:30 p.m., the grandmother, 64-year-old Sandra Jeeter of Sherwood, started hollering, “There’s something on me!”

Miller looked up to see that a squirrel had grabbed hold of her mother’s bob hairdo and was holding tight. Miller grabbed the squirrel and, assuming it had landed on her mom’s head by accident and was as scared as they were, tossed it into the yard and hoped it would run away. Alas.

“No, that sucker came running back at us,” Miller recounted Friday, nearly 24 hours after the ordeal. “It was going to jump me but swerved toward my mom, climbed back up her leg and got into her hair again.”

This time, Miller decided a show of force was in order. “He was going really crazy in her hair, so I grabbed him again and threw him hard this time.” 

Again, no luck. The squirrel barreled back toward them, Miller said, and started biting a tire on Jeeter’s SUV.

Jeeter was bleeding at this point, with a bite mark on her arm, Miller said. “I said, ‘Mom, we have to get to the hospital. You’re probably gonna have to get rabies shots and this squirrel is crazy.’”

But before Jeeter could get into the car and make an escape, the squirrel was back for more, again affixed to her head. Miller grabbed the squirrel again and threw it as hard as she could, as Jeeter stumbled and fell into the grass. Undeterred, the squirrel yo-yo’d back for more.

“So I’m trying to help her up, and at the same time I’m watching him biting my back tire this time.” As the squirrel stood on its back legs to bite at the tire, Miller noticed it was a male squirrel, which told her this wasn’t a momma squirrel simply protecting a nest.

Unable to get Jeeter off the grass, Miller made for the carport to grab a walker that would help her stand. The squirrel set its sights on Miller at this point, following her to the carport, then jumping on her leg, running up her back and biting her elbow.

“I grabbed him again and threw him hard on the cement,” Miller said. Then she started whacking at the squirrel with various car-washing and lawn tools, landing blows on his head and back until it ran away.

Miller said that while she felt terror and a rush of adrenaline during the attack, her mom appreciated the entertainment value from her front-lawn seat, where she remained for the duration of the carport melee.

“My mom is laughing because the squirrel was attacking me,” Miller recounted. “I finally got her off the ground. I said, “Mom, we’ve got to go to the ER because that squirrel was not in his right mind.’”

The two women went to the Baptist Health Medical Center on Springhill Drive for treatment, which included the cleaning up of multiple scratches and bites, along with some shots. It’s extremely rare for squirrels to carry rabies, but who wants to risk it? Miller and Jeeter both got tetanus and rabies shots Thursday, and they’ve got three more rounds of rabies shots scheduled for the coming weeks.

Miller and Jeeter reportedly created a bit of a buzz at the emergency room Thursday because squirrel attacks are quite rare, and nurses without the battle experience wanted to take a gander at what the bites and scratch marks look like.

Miller’s son eventually got the birthday sign installed as his dad stood by, ready to provide security if needed, and the cake-and-ice cream birthday celebration will go on this weekend as planned, Miller said. She even went to work today, despite the scratches and bruises.

While marauding squirrels haven’t terrorized Arkansas communities en masse yet, California hasn’t been so lucky.

Is it OK to laugh at our neighbors who suffer rodent attacks but live to tell the tale? We hope so.

As Miller shared her story of birthday party prep gone awry, the classic “Mississippi Squirrel Revival” came to mind.