By Sarah Nagem
snagem@salisburypost.com
Rowan County Animal Control on Thursday confirmed the county’s 12th rabies case.
A dead skunk found in a yard in Salisbury tested positive for rabies, and a dog that might have been exposed to the skunk was euthanized, according to Animal Control.
Cristina Peodorovici, who lives at 2585 Oddie Road, said she found the skunk Wednesday morning.
She first noticed something in her backyard around 7:30 a.m., Peodorovici said. Her family’s Labrador mix, Lady, was on a leash in the yard, she said.
In the dim light of the early morning, she said, she thought the black shadowy figure of the skunk was actually Lady.
“I thought it was her sleeping over there,” Peodorovici said.
But she noticed it again around 9 a.m., she said. She didn’t think her dog would have been sleeping in the same spot for so long.
“That’s when I went out there to check if everything was OK,” she said.
She spotted the dead skunk and called Animal Control. Officers took the skunk and Lady, who was not current on her rabies shots.
Lady was quarantined at a shelter pending the results from the skunk’s rabies test, which came back positive.
Lady was euthanized Thursday.
The county’s last rabies case was at the end of September, when another skunk found in Salisbury tested positive.