All right, it's one thing when you hear a coyote or two howling at night. But now there's a pack of them. And they're getting closer to the house.
The cats are no longer begging to be out at night, hunting gophers and mice. They are content to be indoors during the dark. That's unusual.
When the boys and I were in Colorado a year ago for the Higher Things youth conference, we visited Pike's Peak. Andrew picked up a stick that was good and thick, with several sharp prongs at the end. He called it "Lionsbane" and intended to use it to beat off any wild and vicious animals we should encounter on our trip up the mountain. (I'm pretty sure this was all a big joke in his mind.) But then we did see a mountain lion, lazing on a rock in the sunshine, when we were walking around a little higher up the peak. Of course, at that point Lionsbane was in the car and wouldn't have been any help should the lion have bothered to saunter over our direction.
When I walked over to church in the dark the other day to set up the altar, I heard the coyote pack. They weren't as nearby as we've been hearing them recently. But it crossed my mind that Lionsbane may need to be stored near the front door. Maybe we need to change some habits, and begin to take care (and carry a club) when we go outdoors in the dark. Maybe we'll even have to learn to take out the trash during daylight hours.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Yikes.. That's some serious coyote problem. ..not really a thing you think of often as something that could be a danger.
ReplyDeleteA club?!?
ReplyDeleteCoyotes come in packs.
A semi-auto shotgun with pretty large shot would be a better idea.
This is a wonderful example of where Wisconsin's strict gun laws hurt the average family...
ReplyDeleteI would like to suggest a gun.
ReplyDeleteShooting a couple of those suckers might scare them off.
I vote you call Matt's dad- he likes to shoot coyotes. Then Clive can have a friend!
Rachel, Dad said he was going to get the gun out.
ReplyDeleteScott, I wasn't thinking of a club to take them on. I was just thinking it might not be wise to go out with the trash or go next door to church altogether empty-handed.
Yeah, but if you need something, you'll need more than a club. I don't expect they'd come after you, but if you need to have a tool in hand, wouldn't you want the best tool?
ReplyDeleteAt our house back home, we had coyotes around for as long as we can remember. Sometimes they ate our neighbors cats, but aside from that we never had a problem with them at all.
ReplyDeleteThat's not to say that you don't want to play it somewhat safe, but I wouldn't worry. They tended to be more afraid of us that we were of them - and would usually just run away if we went out into the backyard when they were there.
Yeah, Nathan, that's what I thought before too. When we'd hear one coyote, I wasn't scared. Everybody told me they tend to be big chickens, more bark/yip than bite. But now that I'm hearing them in a pack, I'm not quite as brave as I was.
ReplyDeleteWe have a couple of packs that roam our neighborhood. They really are frightened of humans. One pack sleeps in the rocks right behind our property and we've only seen them a handful of times. The few times I've seen them they ran as soon as they saw me. I'm more annoyed that they wake us up than worried they will attack.
ReplyDelete