Beloved Canadian songstress ANNE MURRAY strangles rabid raccoon at Vancouver's VanDusen botanical gardens
After much of Canada bathed in sunshine and warm temperatures last week, warm weather of up to 16C had been forecast to stay for the coming week.
But that prediction has now been scrapped as Canada faces a six-day easterly chill from Russia with snow in places and some days feeling like 1C in “raw” polar windchill.
So don't put your winter clothes away yet, as the six-day shiver is expected to start tomorrow when easterly winds will make 4-7C highs feel like 1-5C for most of the day and just 1-3C at the weekend.
...and in our Top Story tonight...legendary Canadian singer/songwriter, Anne Murray, whose albums have sold over 54 million copies worldwide, was viciously attacked by a raccoon in a popular botanical garden in the westcoast Canadian city of Vancouver.
Anne Murray knew she would not be able to get away from the violent raccoon that attacked her on the leg Saturday afternoon as she walked in VanDusen Botanical Garden watching for birds...So she did what she had to do.
“I tried to shake it off and realized how violent it was,” said Anne Murray, 69, of Springhill, Nova Scotia. “As I moved backward away from it, I grabbed its neck and I knew that I couldn’t get away from it. If I ran, it would be faster than I would and would just tear me to pieces.
“So I threw it to the ground and I strangled it — with both hands.
I am a terrific animal lover. It’s the last thing in the world I would have ever wanted to do, but you know self-preservation kicks in, and I guess a primitive part of my brain just went into operation and that was it,” she said Tuesday, recalling the incident.
State laboratory test results reported Tuesday confirmed that the raccoon had rabies. Murray was taken by ambulance to Vancouver General Hospital for treatment. She was started on a series of shots to prevent rabies infection.
Murray, who taught tai chi for 40 years and who is a Feldenkrais practitioner — a method for working with people who have physical concerns — said she believes it was that physical and mental training that enabled her to respond as she did.
“I think that the presence of mind and the focusing on the moment was just with me to manage to do this."
She said the only residual effects are tiredness, which could be from the rabies prevention shots or from the experience of coming down off such an adrenaline rush. But, she's telling her fans not to worry, the Canadian tour in support of her new album "Thank God the CBC loves me", will not be cancelled.
Anne Murray knew she would not be able to get away from the violent raccoon that attacked her on the leg Saturday afternoon as she walked in VanDusen Botanical Garden watching for birds...So she did what she had to do.
“I tried to shake it off and realized how violent it was,” said Anne Murray, 69, of Springhill, Nova Scotia. “As I moved backward away from it, I grabbed its neck and I knew that I couldn’t get away from it. If I ran, it would be faster than I would and would just tear me to pieces.
“So I threw it to the ground and I strangled it — with both hands.
State laboratory test results reported Tuesday confirmed that the raccoon had rabies. Murray was taken by ambulance to Vancouver General Hospital for treatment. She was started on a series of shots to prevent rabies infection.
Murray, who taught tai chi for 40 years and who is a Feldenkrais practitioner — a method for working with people who have physical concerns — said she believes it was that physical and mental training that enabled her to respond as she did.
“I think that the presence of mind and the focusing on the moment was just with me to manage to do this."
She said the only residual effects are tiredness, which could be from the rabies prevention shots or from the experience of coming down off such an adrenaline rush. But, she's telling her fans not to worry, the Canadian tour in support of her new album "Thank God the CBC loves me", will not be cancelled.