Linda Buel noticed the raccoon, standing on the other side of her fence in the 300 block of Chestnut Avenue, when her dogs started barking.

"It couldn't walk in a straight line ... but it wasn't salivating, it wasn't lashing out," said Buel, who thought the raccoon might be injured and managed to trap the animal in a neighbor's trash can.

State tests confirmed the animal had rabies, which can be fatal to humans.

Last month, a Gaithersburg man also found a rabid raccoon sleeping under a bush by his home in the 400 block of Upshire Circle in the Washingtonian Woods neighborhood.

Lisa Holland, director of Gaithersburg's Animal Control Department, said the cases are unrelated.

The raccoon found in Gaithersburg was the city's second case this year, Holland said. About five are found in the city every year.

Buel, who has lived in Washington Grove for about 25 years, said the raccoon by her house was the first she had heard of in the town.

In 2004, 244 animals tested positive for rabies in Maryland, said Kim Mitchell, an epidemiologist at the Center for Veterinary Public Health, adding pet owners should remember to keep their pets' vaccines current.