They breed 'em tough up in the Maine woods

95-year-old man clubs rabid fox to death.

Brunswick: [Robert] Galen ... had been repairing his deck and was walking around the house to fetch planks. Wearing work gloves, he picked up one broken plank that was the size of a club, and when he looked up he saw a mature fox “looking me right in the eye.”

Galen estimated the fox was less than 2 feet away.

Asked if the animal attacked or lunged at him, “It never got the opportunity,” Galen said. “Any fox or rabbit or skunk that approaches a human being within a foot and a half is abnormal.”

It took him about 10 minutes to subdue the animal. As he fought the animal, he fell backward into a bush but continued to strike the fox.

A Maine warden took away the dead fox, and on Tuesday the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention notified him the animal had tested positive for rabies.

He was relieved.

“I didn’t want to kill an innocent animal,” he said.

95, still out repairing his deck, and fully capable of fighting off attackers. I feel like such a wuss.