We encountered a coyote on our walk this morning. As you can see from this picture, CJ (Miss Coyote Jane) doesn’t look much like her namesake these days.
Really, I suppose, she never did, especially the coloring, but it seems to me the resemblance used to be just a hair stronger. Maybe it’s because her tail is more definitely curled, or maybe it’s because she’s not as lean as she used to be, but in any case–she’s all dog now.
She had a great time. When I first realized she’d flushed a coyote, I called her back and put her and the Shiba girl on leash. I worry a bit when the dogs chase coyotes–I figure the coyote is probably more serious and fierce than the dogs. We got a bit away, and I let them off–but the coyote followed us, so CJ went after it again. Since I didn’t want it following us, and I figured I’d given it a chance to not be harrassed by the dogs, I just let it go, but got my shaky Shiba boy on leash–he’s not up to handling coyotes on his own these days.
So they played tag awhile, and I got a few pictures. Here’s a find-the-coyote picture:
Can you see him? H’s very well camouflaged in this environment. I sharpened the picture a bit, but he still doesn’t exaclty stand out.
Here are a couple more. First CJ going after the coyote. . .
. . . then the coyote going after her when she truns around and heads back to me:
Having trouble finding the coyote? Believe me, he’s in both of them. Here’s a close-up from the first one, just to prove he’s there:
Eventually, he decided to leave us alone. I’m not sure why he followed us in the first place–it’s possible we were headed toward his den. But in any case–no harm done, and he gave CJ a good romp.
How odd that you posted this today! I got up this morning because my dogs were creating an unholy racket — and saw two coyotes in the backyard. One disappeared into the underbrush when I opened the sliding door and stepped onto the deck, but the other just watched until I ran toward it shouting. And even then, it only loped away rather than running scared.
I’ve been afraid to let my miniature dachshund out. No one has told her she’s little, and she happily takes on any animal of any size.
Just a few minutes ago, we saw the neighbor’s mastiff come through the yard sniffing at the trail the coyotes disappeared down, so we’re hoping he’ll scare them away.
Sigh. It’s so frightening giving your heart to a fearless, tiny creature.
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Indeed. You have to take care for them, because they’re too brave to take care for themselves sometimes.
I lost a cat to the coyotes several years ago. I knew it was a risk letting him outside–but he would have been miserable if I’d kept him in (and made my life miserable in the process) so I made the choice to risk a shorter happier life rather than subject him to a longer unhappy one.
I like coyotes, and I like living where there are coyotes, but they do complicate things a bit. The only time I was seriously concerned was several years ago when we encountered a mated pair, and I think we were near their den because of the way they were trying to chase us off. The male went after my littlest dog while I was chasing the female away from the poodle. I turned around and went after him and got him off her, but she just took off and disappeared. She made her way home a couple of hours later. I was very proud of her, because it was at least five miles, and we’d never walked the route all the way home from where we were. I stayed away from that walk for a couple of months after that.
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Wow. Yikes, that sounds terrifying (your little dog incident).
I’m with you: I like to hear them cry, and I like living in or near wild places, where they live. But I kept my little dog in most of the day yesterday. After the mastiff disappeared down the animal track, both of our dogs settled down and haven’t been restless since, so I figure the coyotes left the immediate vicinity, at least for now.
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