SOUTH KINGSTOWN — A fox attacked a Kingston woman in her backyard yesterday morning, biting her in the leg and finger.

Jennifer Phillips was in her garden at 106 Bayberry Rd. around 10:30 a.m. when the fox came at her from 20 feet away and bit her in the calf, Capt. Jeffrey Allen said.

It then bit her on her ring finger after she fell to the ground while trying to hit it away, said Gail Mastrati, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Management. The fox ran into the woods, but returned again.

A DEM officer shot the fox, which was described as slight and skinny, at a neighbor’s property about 50 yards away, Mastrati said. Its body was taken to the state Department of Health, where it was being tested for rabies. Results were expected this morning.

Phillips, a reverend at St. Augustine Episcopal Church, on the University of Rhode Island campus, was treated at South County Hospital. She was expected to get rabies shots, Mastrati said.