Laminarman
Gold Member
This is related to a previous post I made "Dancing with Coyotes". Made my wife and kids move to a new home we built in a much more rural area (I love the land, love to hunt). The kids are 2 and 4, two dogs, and my wife is city "folk" but loves the new house. Long story short: we have been hearing coyotes howling in the evenings, one to two, and it's un-nerving when it's a couple hundred yards behind the house. Tonight we're having a small campfire about 9pm, it's dark, the dogs by our sides, and we hear our dogs get up and start running towards the woods, barking. I call them back, and that goes on two or three times, no big deal, but they're getting pretty worked up over something. It's a calm, 65 degree night, no wind, clear sky, Chardonnay tastes good, life is good. Deer. Racoon. Skunk back there? It is PITCH black out there, no lights, flashlight lost somewhere in the grass at me feet or under the seat. Suddenly, my dogs go ballistic, really ballistic. Then it happens....we hear a howl, another in quick succession, then a rampant pack of howling, then a crescendo coming down the hill towards us at fast speed, and I estimate the pack at 10 coyotes minimum as it's LOUD and frenetic. The pack and our dogs are going at it loudly, and my dogs run towards the woods. I jump up, and tell my wife to get the kids and dogs in the house (my older Lab is unable to protect herself and getting feeble). The house is 50 yards away, which is close, unless you're trying to get a wife, two kids and two labs in it quickly- especially when Labs are not known for their intelligence. The sound is now about 50-75 yards away, getting louder, and I can hear them breaking through the brush and coming towards the opening in our little field behind our house, right near us. It is now too close for comfort for even me as they're heading right at us and my kids are screaming over something making noise and they have no idea at all what's going on. I'm not so much afraid for me as the kids having a horrifying experience. I run towards the pack screaming which I'm sure I'll see any moment, frantically trying to get my dogs back. Contrary to what I think will happen, my dogs come back, hackles on end, and I head for the house at a dead pace, my wife is almost there. The coyotes do not detour, but skirt the brush and woods right along our house, only 50 FEET from the kids treehouse and garage and then I hear them turn back up towards where we were. God they move fast.
I get them inside and head out with a light and shotgun, but they're gone. My wife at this point is not happy at all, terrified, and the dogs have been barking all evening in the basement. How do I put this all in perspective? I find it exciting, but don't want them around due to the kids and dogs. I plan on hunting them, legal or not, starting this week, with 3.5 inch loads of 4 shot with a 12 guage shotgun with a red light at dark. They've only been getting worse and my wife is very, very upset and now the kids won't sleep alone. Please spare me the "you're in their country now, they were there first" crap. I buy that for grizzlies and wolves. We do have neighbors with a lot of kids around (closest neighbor 600 feet away). Some dogs have been killed, one cat. I see a lot of scat. Everybody up here agrees there are too many, and now I experienced it. The land is devoid of game save deer. I got a guy to come trap, but he has to wait until the legal trapping season this fall/winter. I can't wait for that. See my other post "Dances with Coyotes".
I get them inside and head out with a light and shotgun, but they're gone. My wife at this point is not happy at all, terrified, and the dogs have been barking all evening in the basement. How do I put this all in perspective? I find it exciting, but don't want them around due to the kids and dogs. I plan on hunting them, legal or not, starting this week, with 3.5 inch loads of 4 shot with a 12 guage shotgun with a red light at dark. They've only been getting worse and my wife is very, very upset and now the kids won't sleep alone. Please spare me the "you're in their country now, they were there first" crap. I buy that for grizzlies and wolves. We do have neighbors with a lot of kids around (closest neighbor 600 feet away). Some dogs have been killed, one cat. I see a lot of scat. Everybody up here agrees there are too many, and now I experienced it. The land is devoid of game save deer. I got a guy to come trap, but he has to wait until the legal trapping season this fall/winter. I can't wait for that. See my other post "Dances with Coyotes".