Stamford officials are warning residents to be careful after a rabid fox attacked a mother and her young child last week.

Michelle Wisniewski says she and her son already received rabies shots as a precaution. 

She says she was walking along Country Club Road with her 20-month-old son Christopher when she saw the fox. She says it ran toward them and appeared to be acting strangely. 

Wisniewski says she fought the animal off, but it bit her leg.

After the attack, mother and son immediately went for rabies shots. Officials later found the fox and it tested positive for the disease.

The CDC says the disease is transmitted through a sick animal's saliva, and once someone presents symptoms, they rarely survive. Wisniewski and Christopher still have two more rounds of shots to go.

As News 12 has previously reported, experts say foxes are normally shy around humans. Aggressive behavior can be a sign that a fox has rabies.

Stamford Animal Control officials say rabies attacks are uncommon, but residents should still know what to do when they happen. One official says the fox attack may have been the first of its kind in the last 18 years, but other animals can also carry the disease.