A rabid coyote attacked a woman less than a quarter-mile outside of Rockland County.

Doreen Entrup says she spotted the animal Friday while on a stroll in her neighborhood in Mahwah, New Jersey. She says she then turned around quietly and started walking away toward her neighbor's home.

“I go to call my neighbor and tell her there's a coyote outside, assuming the coyote would be gone. Instead, it starts biting me,” she says.

She says the bite marks left 13 puncture wounds on her body. Entrup says things would have been a lot worse if it wasn't for a bat she found in her neighbor’s garage.

“I started beating it with the bat and it made the coyote push itself away from me,” she says.

MORE: Woman says she was bitten by coyote in Mahwah 

Entrup then ran into her neighbor's home and was rushed to the hospital. She is now undergoing treatment for rabies.

Clarkstown animal control officer Pat McCoy-Coleman says the attack has alarmed many in Rockland County. While she says the animal was definitely rabid, she says there hasn't been an attack by a diseased coyote in the county in five years.

McCoy-Coleman says those who want to play it safe should walk with an umbrella.

“Whether you're walking your pet and a dog comes running out at you, you pop the umbrella. It gives you distance and protection,” she says.

The rabid coyote in New Jersey has not been captured yet, but police and animal control units are patrolling the area hoping to capture it before it dies from the disease.