Sometimes one moment is the difference between life and death.
The coyote had a confused look on its face. These tan little creatures were the same size as a bunny. Same color as a bunny. But they were barking, howling, and jumping at it.
What I saw, my husband heard.
The predator's hesitation gave enough time for my husband, armed with a shovel I had forgotten to put away, to charge past our puppies in hot pursuit of the trespassing predator.
I don't remember opening the door and running out. I only remember swooping our tow little angels up and taking them into the safety of our house. Then saying "thank you" to God.
2:45 in the afternoon, the coyote sailed back over the back fence with the same silent stealth as he invaded with. Protected under the camouflaging chaparral behind our home, he will wait for another opportunity.
We who are fortunate enough to live on the edge of civilization- from time to time- have peril invade our paradise. The same little canyon that is filled with scrub jays, bunnies and squirrels is sometimes a resort for ravenous carnivores. Summer, winter, spring and fall.
These seasons come and go. But vigilance never should.
The rose is 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' originally a gift from my darling niece, Anka.
These seasons come and go. But vigilance never should.
The rose is 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' originally a gift from my darling niece, Anka.
Oh Lydia,
ReplyDeleteYour story brought back memories of the same situation we had. Years back we had two black Lab mix puppies snug in their little beds on the service side of our house. A coyote sailed over our block wall (twice) and knocked over some buckets sitting there. That raised us all and those little pups were putting up such a huge racket that it must have scared the dickens out of that coyote! He leaped back over the wall but we found that it had the "pee" scared out of him because there was a wet trail on the cement!
It happened one other time but John had set up a a warning system so thankfully it was again unsuccessful!
Thank goodness you left that shovel out and Gerry had the opportunity to grab it and chase down the coyote! Good job, Ger!!
XO Trisha
Pretty Scary! I know I see Cayote's up here all the time, but they have never been so close that I was terribly afraid....And none of my cats have EVER gone out. If they had, they would be goners....!
ReplyDeleteI must say, I like living where I see Deer and Cayote's and Skunks, etc., etc....(I even saw a Bob Cat that came into my garden below, on his way to hunting something....) And of course all the Hawks are a Joy for me, too.
BUT, I would not like feeling at such risk as you must feel for your little ones and the dogs, too!
I like to think (since the outcome was good) that we were fortunate to have the incident. It will keep us on our toes.
ReplyDeleteWe rarely let the dogs roam without supervision- they just beat my husband out the door when he opened the backdoor to go for a stretch in the backyard.
There os nothing unusual about coyotes in the neighborhood- we even have occasional big bobcats and one very lost mountain lion. But the larger predators generally stay on the backhills and do their feeding at night. About once every 5 years we have to make a call because of the public safety issues.