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A normal Sunday afternoon play date turned ugly once a crazed raccoon entered the party. 11-year-old, Irie Campbell from Vermont was playing her younger brother, Felix, 5 and her friend, Piper Rolfe in the town of Kirby.

"My brother was standing right over there in that area and then all of a sudden he started to scream and run up the hill," Irie explained to WCAX.

Out of nowhere, a raccoon leaped out of the woods and aimed for Irie's face, hissing at her. The raccoon bit Irie's hand before Piper, her 10-year-old blind friend jumped into action.

"Piper said, 'What is it?' And I said it was a raccoon and she got a stick and started to poke it and hitting it a little which helped out a lot," the young girl said.

"I already had the stick. I don't really know what I was thinking. I just thought to try to get it off Irie," Piper said.

Despite not seeing or knowing what the potentially feral raccoon looked like, Piper chose to be brave and help protect her friend from the raccoon, which eventually ran away. It left Irie with six bites, including ones of her hand and her thigh. Irie was brought to a local hospital to get treated for rabies exposure. The strong young girl is expected to fully recover after getting a series of shots.

There have been 27 confirmed cases of rabies already in Vermont along this year, according to the Health Department.

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