Just to add to the animal fun, my dog and I had a deer go after us last weekend. I was hanging laundry and the dog was just wandering around (he ignores deer in the yard), and a deer started charging him and almost hit me on her way back around. Took me a second to realize that she must have a baby with her. At first I thought we had found psycho deer! We went in to let her relax, then came back out and, sure enough, she did have a baby with her. It was a small baby, probably just a couple of days old since it was big enough to walk, but was still very small. They headed on their way and we finished that laundry. A little bit of mountain fun!

Coyotes have gotten to be a big problem at the lower elevations around here. With our rising populations, we keep expanding into their territories and they have nowhere to go but the parks and neighborhoods. In the last couple of years there have been more problems with attacks on dogs and even a couple on people, so the cities have had to look for solutions. We have coyotes up here, too, but it's not as big of a problem. (Maybe the mountain lions keep the populations down.... ) Since the coyotes can be around any time of day, I just go ahead and let the cats out when I'm home and let them fend for themselves. It's so wild up here that I think their quality of life is so much higher being able to go outside and enjoy that, that I think it's worth the risk for them. I do try to keep them in at night, but the boy cat doesn't always cooperate. They've made it 6 years so far and my previous cat made it for the 8 years we were up here before she died of old age at 18, so I guess my cats are pretty coyote-savvy.

Terrie it's so nice to see you again!

We have coyotes here in our corner of the world. We have a Chihuahua (Duke) and he would be an instant snack (is that like fast food!?) so we don't let him out unless we are with him. We do have bunnies! I saw two this morning while exercising. They are bigger than Duke, which isn't saying much!

I'm enjoying the critters.... as long as they stay away from us!

Geneva

Gosh it's exciting the other side of the pond! Biggest wild animals I see round here are the odd rabbit and squirrels

Nice new pic, Marilyn, and Limbania's too! Nice to 'see' you.

We have coyotes here year round....we seldom see them in town, but DH heard pups singing
this morning early... 5:30-ish...very near. Now...racoons...folks along the river have the pesty guys !
Too bad they are cute....people feed them as they don't know what troublemakers they are.

If coyotes are hungry, they will attack a larger animal. My niece had her two labs out for a walk and the larger male was attack by two coyotes. My niece was able to scare them off and the dog was unhurt. I think they would definitely eat a ground hog. We have a lot of coyotes here and have a Great Pyrenees to protect out chickens. He does a great job, but barks a lot at night.

loise98 wrote:
Maybe you caught them all (I hope) or may the coyote ate them. I didn't think they ate anything so large, but we never know.
Ground hogs are such a pest and they sure seem to be entering our urban environment.

Since we are onto coyotes here, one was seen in the field behind our yard last week. Last year my husband harvested few vegetables from his garden. He did, however, catch 6-9 ground hogs in box traps near the garden where evidence of their distruction was abundant. In the spring more ground hogs had taken up residence in the field. On the contrary as summer progresses we see no ground hogs and the vegetables are growing. What do you think has happened?

how about the pot to boil them in?
I love this forum. You never know what you are going to learn each day. Thanks Renata for making my day

ritzy wrote:
Ritzy, the same happened to us with an influx of coyotes in our suburban development. The raccoon went away when my husband (St Francis) stopped leaving food out for stray cats, birds and squirrels... but the coyotes stayed for a couple of years so I could not let my cat out at dawn or dusk for a long time. Animal control refused to help unless the coyotes bit someone! A coyote came onto my neighbor's deck and looked into the French door at her three cats while the family was out one evening. I swear I thought I saw a napkin around his neck and he was holding a fork and knife!

Wendy - my mouth is still dropped open and tears in my eyes. What an honour! I'll go search through the CW posts. HUGS!

Renata--we called animal control to try to get rid of the raccoon and they told us they only do domestic animals! Couldn't believe it.

Wow! What a pleasure it is to know you are feeling well enough to send us all a message. Take care. Rest. Recover! Good to know you are back.

You'll have to read through the CW thread at your leisure but I want you to know you featured on my quilt