coyote snacks

I finally had my first coyote sighting last night. Most people wouldn't get too excited. It was just running across the road. But I was pretty excited....

We've been hearing all about the coyotes since we moved in. I guess they have quite a problem with them here in the burbs. They use our neighborhood as hunting grounds. Most people don't mind the hunting of bunnies, raccoons, and squirrels but I guess they have a "special appetite" for little dogs. A dozen or so little dogs have been eaten by them in the last year. The coyotes have been known to jump fences as high as four feet to snatch a dog from a yard. One of my neighbors complained that she was "stalked" by a coyote while walking her dog at dusk. It terrified her by its brazenness. It got so close to her that she actually felt she had to pick up her little dog and carry it or the coyote would have tried to eat it right off the leash.


Who would of thought that moving to a big city burb would bring us more encounters with "wild life"? We have seen multiple deer in our backyard. I could watch the hundreds of beautiful birds all day long. Two of my neighbors were telling me the other day about a tree they had in their backyard. It was in the "wetland" area almost perfectly between their two yards (so no one could really say who it belonged to). It was a beautiful tree with a family of birds living in it that both families enjoyed watching. One day they both noticed the tree was gone. Parts of it were lying in the yard. Both husbands and wives complained to each other blaming the other neighbor of cutting it down. "I can't believe they would cut that big tree down without asking us!" "Why would they do that?!" They were actually mad at each other for a couple of weeks, until another neighbor came over and said "I see the beavers got one of your trees too". Now we know why there are all those little fences are around the trees.

Back to the coyotes....
We've also heard stories of their hunting sounds that they make. At the neighborhood party that we went to last week, I was fascinated by everyone's descriptions. So every night (since the temps have been so cool) I have been sleeping with the windows open, hoping to hear the coyotes. So far all I hear are trains....

But Tony has hear them. He was out jumping on the trampoline in the dark the other night. He came in saying that he heard the coyotes and it was "freaking him out".

I wonder if they might ever have a "special appetite" for little boys....