That’s it.
I’m never trimming my toenails again without eye protection. I think I missed losing an eye last night by around 3mm.
The dog has a pattern we have followed now for many years. I tie him out, he barks a couple times then realizes, hey, I came out here to shit! then he wanders around, squats, and sniffs around for a bit until he realizes he’s alone, then barks again to be let back in.
Last night he had a whole new sound to his bark, a frantic sound, frenetic even, and i went out to see what he was so worked up over.
A little pack of coyotes was running through the yard. A big male and female, and two younger females. The male looked big, maybe 40 lbs.
While I would shoot them in a minute if i had chickens or other livestock, I’m damned if I’mna harm a hair on their heads here.Professional courtesy, maybe.
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True men don’t kill coyotes.
http://youtu.be/0F7M0oqJR08
I know how you feel about the coyotes. They are nice to have around, even though we have chickens and sheep. The novelty may wear off in time though.
When I had coyotes wandering around, I didn’t have many skunks, raccoons or ‘possums wandering around.
If I saee a coyote it is target time. They are like criminals, maybe innocent when you see them, but they are about to do something or have done something.
I live well out in the sticks. The coyotes still get a free pass until one hops the fence and get in the yard to come after my late wifes’ Pomeranians. Then they get very strongly discouraged. That actually has only happened once in the 9 years I’ve lived here; usually they are smart enough to stay away.
Along the lines of Ed’s experience, I’m reminded of a local shooting champion’s situation with raiding crows. He set up a silenced air rifle (he lives in a wooded area of a big city) inside a window overlooking his back yard, shooting position concealed by the curtains, a started shooting any that landed on the bird feeders or grass.
It didn’t take too many hits before the remaining crows figured out they’d better not cross his fence line. He though he might have to be a week at it but they learned in one (1) afternoon and remembered for the the rest of the year, maybe longer.
They’re clever enough but I dunno if coyotes are that easily dissuaded.
I took out a few once only after they had chased a family members dog up onto the porch and gutted it alive while the children of the house screamed in horror from the window. It was a bad year, and there wasn’t enough rabbits and such for them. With six small children and two dogs between the sister in law and myself, I dispatched them. Didn’t feel good about it, but wasn’t about to let that happen again.
Guy I used to work with had a poultry farm northeast of OKC, and had a constant running battle with them. Good weather for a number of years, and there were a LOT of them.
Not just going after the birds, either; local pack got big & nasty enough their dog- a Great White Pyrenees- wouldn’t go out past the building line from evening till morning for a while.
Ms x: I have had good luck with pee, actually, on foxes and coyotes. People do ask why I have a windex bottle full of urine in the shed.
The only thing I am concerned about is the few neighborhood people who have outdoor cats, and I have warned them again and again.
Outdoor cats don’t get old. That’s a fact. Country cats last maybe until 6 or 7, and then they get too slow to evade the coyotes.
My comrades back in Michigan despise them. The pheasant hunting I did in my youth is gone because of the spread of coyotes in that state.