Well, folks, it looks like we have a coyote problem in my backyard.
To quote Henry, "it's the talk of the neighborhood."
One of my neighbors called last week to say that neighbor A had seen 3 coyotes in the woods behind all of our houses at 3:30 in the afternoon and neighbor B had often heard them howling and making other "terrible noises" associated with celebrating a kill at 3 a.m.
On Friday I spoke to my next door neighbor who said, he heard them every night last week except for one. And yet another neighbor, let's call her C, had seen them in her yard at 9:30 at night. Mr. Next Door was certain that the pack had been attracted by the sheep that were being raised a few streets over. (We live in a garden variety suburb, but yes, someone thought it was a good idea to raise some sheep). According to Mr. Next Door, another guy, who knows a girl, who knows this guy said that he'd seen the sheep being loaded into a truck. So maybe, just maybe, the coyotes would move onto new areas once their major food sources had dried up.
Then I spoke to the original neighbor again. She has now heard them howling at night so loudly that she was too freaked out to watch TV, had to chase one out of her (fenced) yard, and spotted a pack of four skulking about at dusk.
As for me, I have neither seen nor heard anything out of the ordinary. I don't know whether to be disappointed or relieved. But I do know that I'm being even more careful than usual about keeping Sufi from escaping to the great outdoors.
P.S. Thanks to everyone for welcoming me back.
8 comments:
um... she was too freaked out to watch TV (the ultimate intellectual escape, no?), but chased one out of her yard herself? I'm most suspicious of your neighbors.
Dang! That would freak me out a little bit too.
P.S. If your neighbors can have *sheep* then surely I can have a couple of urban chickens ...
If only you still lived in Sackets. Instead of your neighbors running the coyotes out of their backyard, they would just shoot them. Oh and also, the sheep would not have bee loaded onto a truck they would still be grazing, if only you still lived in Sackets....
I'm so jealous. If there was talk about a coyote in my neighborhood, I would start looking for a dude trafficking illegal immigrants.
I'm not sure exactly, but I think this may be some sort of promotional gimmick for the new Twilight movie.
You'll get used to it. We have, afterall, built subdivisions on what was once their habitat. Out here in the Rockies, we not only worry about mountain lions taking our cats, but bald eagles have been known to swoop down and carry them off. We still let our cat out at night and, much to Scott's consternation, he returns each morning. ;-) We also have local moose populations who like to visit our front yards every so often. Now THAT gets the dogs a-barkin' ...
We had a couple in our backyard several times before I moved 2 months ago....and I agree that they do make some awful noises at night (had one right outside the Kid's bedroom window the one night - freaked me RIGHT out). But for the most part they should be nocturnal. If anyone sees one during the day that is not a good sign and they should be calling animal control - not chasing it themselves.
And welcome back....we missed you!
Yikes! We had a coyote in our neighborhood last spring. He roamed the streets during the day, which led us to believe he was rabid.
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