"I've camped with my family since 1965. I've never experienced anything like this," said Jeff Gepheart of Rochester.

Jeff Gepheart was fast asleep in his tent at Button Bay State Park in Ferrisburgh earlier this month when screams from his daughter woke him. She was in a tent with her husband and two young children.

"She was yelling, 'Dad, help! Coyotes are attacking our tent,'" Gepheart said.

In shorts and a T-shirt, Gepheart went to help his daughter, only to be met halfway by a rabid fox.

"I wound up grabbing the fox, got it by the neck and pinned it to the ground," he said.

"It was terrifying listening to the whole thing. It was making this awful squealing and growling," wife Marty Gepheart said.

The Gephearts' son-in-law was able to grab a light and an ax. While Jeff Gepheart held the animal down, they were able to kill it. But not before it got a couple of bites in.

According to the Vermont Department of Health, 48 animals tested positive for rabies in Vermont last year. Experts say the majority of those animals are bats and raccoons.

"If the animal is being particularly friendly, particularly aggressive or just the falling down, the stumbling, the drooling-- the best thing to do is to stay away from it," said Lt. Justin Stedman, a Vermont game warden.

But in cases like the Gephearts' where you do get bit, Stedman says to get help and contact officials right away. If possible, preserve the animal's body for testing.

Jeff Gepheart went to Porter Medical Center and was given a series of rabies shots. He says after he was bitten, he was having a hard time concentrating. But his last shot was Thursday and he says now he feels like himself again.