The fox that repeatedly bit a 2-year-old girl is such a neighborhood regular, she's been given the nickname "Foxy."

The fox had never showed signs of aggression before attacking Jasmine Estrada, biting the child seven times on her arm and twice on her face, people in the West Denver neighborhood said Monday.

"Her name is Foxy, and she's tame as hell," said Robert Calkins. "She's raising two kits and they don't cause any problems."

Jasmine was playing with her two older sisters in front of their home in the 3700 block of West Third Avenue when she was attacked.

Jasmine's father, Victor Manuel Estrada, said he didn't see the attack because a tree obstructed his view. The screams of a neighbor telling the fox to stop biting the girl made him panic.

"We got scared because we didn't know what was happening, but then I saw that my little girl had been bitten," Estrada said speaking in Spanish .

Estrada said he and the neighbor chased after the fox but she escaped through the Estrada's backyard.

"If it hadn't been for our neighbor, we wouldn't have found out what was happening," Estrada said.

The youngster was treated at a hospital and released. She is at home recovering from her wounds.

Doug Kelley, director of Denver Animal Care and Control, said personnel responded to the house immediately after Jasmine was bitten but did not catch the animal, which neighbors said has a limp. Kelley said it's likely the animal is a red fox.

"We have traps and are trying to track it down," Kelley said.

Kelley said if the fox is captured, it will be euthanized and the body taken the Colorado Public Health and Environment Lab at Lowry to test for rabies.

"We won't know until we capture it. The good news is that there hasn't been (reports of) rabies in Denver in decades," Kelley said. "But in any situation, we need to be double and triple sure that no health concerns are there."

About 700 to 800 animal bites are reported to Denver Animal Care and Control each year, Kelley said.

But foxes don't have a reputation for biting people because the animals usually run away, according to Jack Murphy, director of Urban Wildlife Rescue, a Colorado non-profit that cares for injured and orphaned wildlife.

"This one fox may have messed it up for all the other ones," said Murphy, who estimates the number of foxes in the metro area is in the thousands.

Murphy said news of the attack has caused people to call his office to report fox sightings or ask him to do something to save the fox w that bit Jasmine.

Neighbors, who were familiar with the animal because some fed it, said the fox returned to the area several hours after the attack.

Eleanor Solano said the fox has a streak of mischief, remembering the time the animal snatched a pair of gloves from her driveway while she painted her home.

"I said, 'Stop, those are my only leather gloves!'" Solano said.

Solano said the fox "is not even skittish with people. Big people, he's not afraid of at all."

On more than one occasion her husband came face-to-face with the fox, Solano said.

"My husband said he's got pretty teeth," she said

A Look at the red fox

Size: About 3 feet long and weighing nine to 11 pounds.

Diet: Rodents, rabbits and birds.

Habitat: Riparian woodland and wetlands on the plains. Also in forest-edge communities in the mountains.

Source: Colorado Division of Wildlife

morenoi@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2895. Staff writer Rosa Ramirez contributed to this report.

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