By MARK O’BRIEN

EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y. -- Shelby Harrison retraces the moments before a stray cat bit her shin last weekend, possibly giving her rabies.

“The cat came out, and I was here,” Harrison says on her back patio.

Harrison says on Sunday, she let her own two cats outside to play, and the stray followed them inside. As she led it out the back door, that’s when the cat attacked, biting once on her right leg.

Making matters worse, Harrison is in her second round of cancer treatments.

“[The bite] is healing well, although right now my blood counts from the chemotherapy are low,” she says.

This is not the first stray cat bite in the neighborhood around Stirrup Drive. In the last week alone, there have been two others, and both of those victims have already received a rabies vaccine. Harrison says based on the description she’s heard from her neighbors, they believe it’s all been done by the same cat.

“This cat is aggressive,” says East Greenbush Animal Control Officer Bob Guyer. “He’s actually gone after people. It’s not one where you actually try to pet or pick up and accidentally been bitten. He’s been aggressive.”

Guyer says it’s unusual for cats to have rabies. According to the Rensselaer County Health Department, out of 14 confirmed rabies cases so far this year, not one has involved a cat or dog. Still, Guyer says people should treat any unfamiliar animal as if it might have rabies.

As for the Stirrup Drive cat, he’s set up multiple have-a-heart traps—which don’t injure the animal—hoping to catch the cat so it can be tested.

The good news for Harrison is that she says it should not impact or delay her cancer regimen in the coming months.

“The timing is just right so that it won’t slow up any of my other treatments,” she says.

But with a slim likelihood of catching the cat, Harrison says she is prepared to begin rabies treatment on Friday.