Thursday, August 20, 2009

That Coyote's Not Ugly

Last week Fin, Hound Dawg, and I were on an evening ramble at dusk. We were were not far from our little bungalow when another animal emerged from the forest and strolled leisurely toward us. It took a few moments for hound dawg to realize we had company, but soon he was straining at the leash to see our visitor.

Meanwhile, I was beginning to feel a bit anxious. "Fin," I said, "I think there's a fox on the road." "Oh that's not a fox, it's a cat or someting," Fin replied. "No, I mean it. I think that's a fox up there," I insisted.

It's important to remember that it was near dark and visibility was poor. This explains why both Fin and I were wrong.

Indeed, the animal walking toward us, showing no particular concern for our presence was to the best of our combined googling and polling of other people in the know, a neighborhood coyote. WOW, definitely a wow moment. Neighborhood Coyote was so nonchalant about the whole thing that we had time to take Hound Dawg back to the fenced yard, grab my camera, and get back for some visual documentation.

Sadly, the light was very bad and the subject, while not reticent also wasn't particularly interested in posing for photos.

This coyote thing was exciting. Fin and I talked about it all evening. I mean, it was VERY exciting.

At least, it was UNTIL about 9'oclock when it was time for Milton the Furry Feline to come in for his dinner. Then, there was no Milton. I called, and called, and called... And, walked around the house and called some more. Finally, I had no choice but to give up and go to bed.

First thing the next morning, I was out the door looking for Milton. Actually, I half expected him to be waiting on the railing of the porch. No Milton. At this point Neighborhood Coyote was a recurring theme in my thought process. I went back in to make the coffee and stew a bit.

Then, it was back outside to the porch. As I stood there, considering what kind of mouthful my furry Milton would make for Neighborhood Coyote, my eyes lighted on the shed. A memory stirred.

Fin, had mowed the day before. He had the shed open to get the lawn mower. Could Milton be tucked away in the shed?

To the shed I went, calling Milton as I walked. As I approached the door, I began to hear a distinctly unhappy feline alerting me to his presence. Meeeeoooooowwww... MEooooow...

Whew, what a relief. Milton spent a night without dinner and water but as Fin put it, "The bright side is that the shed is decidedly coyote proof."

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In other news, and for those keeping up, as of yesterday, the Finman is back in New York for a few weeks before heading back south.

6 comments:

  1. Pretty friendly neighbor you have there, hopefully he doesn't come over for evening tea too often! *S* --Lu

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  2. He looks hungry. Ï've heard them but never seen one up close and personal

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  3. I'm glad that Milton is ok. I would have been in a panic

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  4. I'm glad for the happy ending. Maybe you should invest in a roadrunner.

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  5. I had thought it a fox as first as well due to a rather bushy looking tail, but the side view of the critter adjust my opinion. Coyotes run rampant in these parts, but they are very scraggly and very underfed looking things. I have absolutely no fear of them, and though I live on the base of a mountain with a mountain hiking trail only 3 blocks away, I have no fear of them coming into my yard, either. My Great Danes and Leopard Dog could easily defend themselves against such scraggly, pathetic looking creatures. Even if they came in numbers, I would like to hope that all 3 dogs would band together and take them on. AS your encounter, the never seem to be particularly fearful of the human element. I have had thoughts of shooting the damned things as they are nothing but glorified rodents in my view - but I refrain.

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  6. Thank you all for the comments.

    Ben, I'm afraid our Copper would welcome a coyote in with open arms. He's disturbingly friendly.

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Please play nicely.