A close call - Coyotes!

Last night Cindy and Murphy chased a couple of coyotes through the field (800+ acres) that we always walk them in. We should have known better than to be there after dusk, but we were walking and talking and got started back home too late :-).

Murphy (the ACD) came running back)and when my husband was running after them all he saw Cindy (the Catahoula Leopard)playing with the coyotes!! She ran back to my husband as soon as she saw him though. The coyotes just ambled on into the woods.

This was a first. Usually the coyotes come up behind the fence in our backyard that borders all this acreage and the dogs are nose to nose with them through the wrought iron bars.

Lesson learned. Must stay out of the woods at dusk.

There was a problem here recently with coyotes attacking people's dogs and cats. But it's because they are being pushed out of their homes by developers.

It's sad. I think these coyotes are beautiful. They may be part domestic dog, too. Seems so strange those two coyotes were playing with Cindy. Not fighting or trying to kill her, but she is pretty big at nearly 90 lbs. Murphy is the one I worry about. He's only 45 lbs.

my dogs use dog-doors to go out on their own at night and I have a fenced yard, but it's only a 4' fence so I was escorting them out whenever I heard the dog-door swing. My guys only weigh 40lbs each and would be no match for a pack (or gaggle or whatever you call them ;-) ) of coyotes.

It is sad how we humans have taken over their territory. I saw on our local news that they are using helicopters in some areas here, to track and shoot them. That's the mentality of this state - if it's inconvenient, kill it. I understand they are a problem but people just need to take precautions and learn to live with them; they were here first.

There was a big uproar from a Senior Citizen communtiy out here last year. They were complaining that they were losing cats and little dogs to the coyotes. One fix would have been to fence their properties, but no, they wanted the city to hunt/trap/poison the coyotes.

We have a wrought iron fence across the back of our yard that we put up a 4' high piece of wire fence all across it to keep our dogs in and the coyotes out.

which is how they've extended their range all across this country. They're called coydogs and they've even invaded Cape Cod, something that required them to cross huge bridges.

Coydogs are a great argument for neutering your dogs if you're not a breeder, and carefully confining them if you are.

Killing coyotes and coydogs does no good at all. The remaining population just steps up their breeding, and you get more of them. What they've finally started understanding out west is that the competition for resources offered by wolves (pack animals that greatly outmatch the mostly solitary coyotes) is the only thing that will reduce their numbers.

Stupid ranchers are still trying to kill off reintroduced wolves.

They have to be coydogs.