PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- A jogger attacked by a fox managed to secure the animal in the trunk of her car and drove to a hospital where an animal control officer was also bitten trying to remove it from the vehicle.

The jogger, a Chino Valley resident, told the officer she was attacked while running on a trail Monday at the base of Granite Mountain, said Sheriff Steve Waugh of the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office.

She was about a mile into her run when she encountered the fox in a clearing adjacent to the trail, Waugh said. The fox did not initially appear aggressive, but as she backed away, it attacked by lunging at her feet, Waugh said.

The animal bit her foot and then started toward her knee, but she grabbed the fox by the neck in an attempt to pull him away, Waugh said. The fox bit into her arm and would not release his bite even as she tried to choke him, Waugh said.

The woman assumed the fox was rabid and understood that containing the animal for testing would be essential, Waugh said. She ran back toward her car with the fox still maintaining a bite in her arm, the sheriff said.

She managed to pull the fox's jaw open, release his grip on her arm, and wrap the fox tightly in a sweatshirt she had been wearing, Waugh said. She threw the fox into the trunk of her car and drove to Yavapai Regional Medical Center.

At the hospital, the YCSO Animal Control Officer was bitten while removing the fox from the trunk.

The fox was tested at a hospital in Phoenix on Tuesday and results confirmed a rabid infection, Waugh said.

The jogger is currently undergoing a post-exposure rabies treatment program involving a series of five vaccinations over a specified time period, Waugh said.

The officer had already received a pre-exposure rabies vaccination, so the treatment will only involve two or three successive vaccinations, the sheriff said.