The community I just moved in to is very different from anywhere I’ve ever lived. I’ve always lived in neighborhoods where people’s yards were defined by fences. Coyotes , when you saw one, were always on the outskirts , near open fields and farmland. But the community I live now has, by design, no fences.
Everyone has mature desert landscaping and the wildlife is everywhere, rabbits and quail, ducks ( and apparently kangaroo rats) a plenty. In other words, a target rich environment for coyotes, with lots of trees, shrubs and brush for cover.
I actually enjoy seeing them trot through my yard. The hard part for us is walking our little dog, which we do morning and night. All the neighbors have a story about somebody in the community who had a dog killed by coyotes. They aren’t interested in them for food, they just want to kill them, maybe some sort of territorial thing. Just tonight my wife and I were walking our dog and came face to face with one, it just turned and went off in a different direction. I carry a can of pepper spray just in case one decides to get aggressive.
I ran into three of them coming down the street together a couple weeks ago.
But the most unsettling encounter was about a week ago. I had a habit of taking the dog out for a very short walk about 10:00 at night for one last chance to go before closing up for the night, and I caught a shadow moving about 40 yards away on the other side of the street. I’ve got an absolute flame thrower of a flashlight that is super bright with a long reach. I lit that coyote up and expected it to run away. Now , this flashlight is absolutely blinding when shined in your eyes, and that coyote , instead of running away, ran right towards me. It veered off at the last second and sprinted between two houses. Yikes!
The dog no longer gets a late night walk!
And oh yeah.....it appears we get the occasional javalina passing through as well.
Everyone has mature desert landscaping and the wildlife is everywhere, rabbits and quail, ducks ( and apparently kangaroo rats) a plenty. In other words, a target rich environment for coyotes, with lots of trees, shrubs and brush for cover.
I actually enjoy seeing them trot through my yard. The hard part for us is walking our little dog, which we do morning and night. All the neighbors have a story about somebody in the community who had a dog killed by coyotes. They aren’t interested in them for food, they just want to kill them, maybe some sort of territorial thing. Just tonight my wife and I were walking our dog and came face to face with one, it just turned and went off in a different direction. I carry a can of pepper spray just in case one decides to get aggressive.
I ran into three of them coming down the street together a couple weeks ago.
But the most unsettling encounter was about a week ago. I had a habit of taking the dog out for a very short walk about 10:00 at night for one last chance to go before closing up for the night, and I caught a shadow moving about 40 yards away on the other side of the street. I’ve got an absolute flame thrower of a flashlight that is super bright with a long reach. I lit that coyote up and expected it to run away. Now , this flashlight is absolutely blinding when shined in your eyes, and that coyote , instead of running away, ran right towards me. It veered off at the last second and sprinted between two houses. Yikes!
The dog no longer gets a late night walk!
And oh yeah.....it appears we get the occasional javalina passing through as well.
