Tag Archives: Littleton

Watch Out — It’s Coyote Season!

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Have you ever been stalked? Had that feeling that no matter what you’re doing, someone is watching you, waiting for you to make a mistake, so they could pounce and hurt you? Maybe someone’s broken into your home or yard and left you feeling violated and paranoid.  This edgy feeling of something-not-quite-right may be less imagined than you think.

It’s coyote season.

Once only inhabitants of the American plains, the coyote, or American jackal, brush wolf, or prairie wolf is clever and dangerous, especially at this time of year.  I was working on a blog post for a client recently, and had the chance to talk with a Colorado’s Parks and Wildlife representative regarding coyotes. Apparently today, coyotes are just about everywhere. Literally.  I was told they live in 49 of our 50 states. Can you guess the one state where coyotes do not live?

Anyway, the coyote’s extremely adaptable nature makes living with or near humans a very real experience, and the incidents of these creatures interacting in a negative way with people is rising.  Until 2006 or 2007 Colorado experienced an average of one attack a year. Now the number has risen to 5 or 6 a year.  That may not seem like a lot in terms of the size of the human population around here, but the trend is alarming.

So what makes a coyote encounter so dangerous? I mean, the little guys are only about 35 pounds or so, right?

Friends at the dog park can list a lot of challenges.  First, because of their cleverness, coyotes form packs to lure out unsuspecting dogs and will tease them away from familiar territory, then the pack turns to kill and eat your dog.  Yes, your dog.  Not some stray or lost soul, but pets with good homes and loving families get fooled into the “chase me” game.

A few years ago at Chatfield State Park a puppy of about a year old became separated from his owner.  Although they looked long and hard for the dog, they had to leave over night. The next day the park rangers had found the dog–what was left of it–and told the owners not to bother trying to collect up its remains.

Then, these guys hunt everywhere.  That means toddlers and small children become unsafe, even in their own back yards!  If you have young ones, please do not leave them outside alone, even to go answer a phone or check on the stove. Okay, so this may seem a little extreme, but let me explain the criminal mind behind my warning.

Coyotes are like burglars.  They actually “case” neighborhoods and yards for opportunity.  If you leave out food or have the kind of environment they find “cozy,” they’ll be in your yard, whether you’re aware it or not. That bird feeder you use to attract our wonderful array of winged friends? It’s a welcome sign for coyotes. And leaving a dish of water out for Fluffy becomes finders keepers for the prairie jackal.

Now that coyotes are literally everywhere, wildlife-loving friends are not shooing them away, or putting the fear of humans into coyotes.  They’re taking pictures, and quietly enjoying a close encounter of the wildlife kind.  This emboldens brush wolves to stay and make your yard their home, your neighborhood their territory.

Like humans, coyotes are very territorial.  If man kills for the right to call some piece of land his, do you think coyotes are going to act differently?  And right now, in January and February, coyotes are partnering up and claiming territories for their own. The coyotes will see your dog as a threat to what’s theirs, and that means if your dog is playing by him or herself in what you think is your yard, the coyotes may see Fido as an invader to their territory.

Humans make this situation worse by not frightening off coyotes.  They reach for cameras instead of noise makers or even small stones. Coyotes learn human routines–because let’s face it, we tend to be creatures of habit–then use their knowledge of our behavioral patterns against us.  The result is a bite, a stolen piece of meat waiting to be barbecued, or a missing pet.

Here are some things you should do if you encounter a coyote:

  • Make noise–be scary. Horns, rocks in echo-making cans, shouting, whistling; all these things say you’re a dangerous and unfamiliar creature to the coyote
  • Do not run.  Slowly back off from your encounter.  The coyotes will watch you but you will not evoke their chase mechanism if you remain calm and confident in their presence
  • Keep your yard free of food, and water, two of the main elements coyotes look for in settling into your yard
  • Change your routine and claim your yard for your own.  Is it any wonder a coyote will come to call if your yard remains empty of human activity most of the time?  Think “use it or lose it” where your back yard is concerned.

You can learn more about coyotes at the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website. It’s worth a look, before coyotes become the source of a new Stephen King novel. Ooh, so creepy!

Oh.  And the state that doesn’t have coyotes? Hawaii. But with the stealth and cleverness of the creature, there’s no reason Hawaii will stay coyote-less for long.  Watch out!

NOTE: Sorry my reading friend.  Pics today were blocked from loading.  Will try to add them later.

The Bah-Humbug Bug

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It happens this time just about every year.  The Bah-Humbug bug bites and I feel more than a little Scroogey–know what I mean?

Christmas cards are behind schedule.  There’s that annual holiday note we write that I suspect our friends and families are not quite rushing to their mailboxes to be able to be the first to read.  I’m a writer, and should really enjoy talking all about me, me, me, but somehow this “news” doesn’t feel quite like the gift I envisioned it being.

We bought the tree yesterday.  We’re letting it sit in the living room so the branches can “breathe and fall into place.” I wanted to kiss the guy at the store who said this. Starting the annual search for lights, and “did you leave them in this tangle?” debate leave me feeling about as warm as Denver’s temperature in last week’s Bronco’s game.  Yes. A nice night of procrastination because “NCIS is on” works for me.

And the gifts!  Every year I plan to get these under control early.  I think about them throughout the year. I plan to make the purchases sometime in early November when the first of the barrage of catalogs hits my doorstep. And then, inevitably, I blink and it’s mid-December without the “shopping” done. Instead of shipping in the calm (and less expensive) ground choice, I search the boxes that say “next day delivery–that’ll be more than you can afford, please.” Not quite sure how this happens but am quite certain it’s going to.

Suddenly, I wake one morning and think, “Christmas is just a waste of time!” That’s when I know I have to sit down and rethink this.  And here are some of the things I focus on:

Surfboard Christmas Tree

Move over Charlie Brown! Our tree beats yours for “worst tree” status!

Lights–When we first got together, my husband had not really ever celebrated Christmas.  He was raised a Muslim, and his family was inconsistent in observing their religious holidays.  Our first Christmas, we vacationed in Daytona Beach (neither of us knowing that winter hits Florida as much as anywhere else in the United States).  We got home with our hardly used swimsuits and a styrofoam surf board, which we taped to the wall for our “Christmas Tree.”  It was silly and fun.

But after that, we put up a Christmas tree each year, and for many years I’d wake in the night and find my good guy sitting on the floor in whatever room the tree sat, all the lights out except the tree’s.  The look on his face was of pure innocence and hope, and I’d fall in love with him all over again.

Kids–I still chuckle over the “Dear Santa” letters that are absolute treasures to me.  One year, one of my girls wrote a shopping list for Santa that ran three pages!  Guess she had mom’s and dad’s budget pegged, and knew we were old softies who wanted nothing more than to make her smile.  But this same daughter is the one I’ve seen wrap up her dinner and share it with a homeless person on the street.  She gives to others constantly now and I can’t imagine how she became such a generous spirit.

Music–Okay. Fair warning here.  I love to sing–badly.  It has been decades since I could carry a tune in a bushel basket, as my mom would say, but singing makes me smile.  And yes.  I still love singing along with Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, and The Royal Guardsmen (Snoopy and the Red Barron at Christmas–Classic!).  Kenny G’s Christmas CD is somewhere in my stash (I think my daughter and good guy have hidden it somewhere). One year I even gave holiday CDs to neighbors in the mistaken belief that they love holiday music as much as me. Sticking to edibles from now on.

And gifting!  No, I don’t look forward to “what I got.” I love the last-minute rush where each of us older ones runs to a separate room at 11:00 on Christmas eve, and wraps gifts in our own “creative” ways.  We shout out to each other such loving phrases as “I ran out of tape, got any more?” or “Do we haveta put ribbons on everything?” One Christmas I got a wrapping paper tube filled with wild and wonderful socks.  I laughed and loved them for years to come.

Christmas isn’t such a madhouse any more.  Daughters are grown and gone, but when I wander through the sparklies of the season in my house and smile, Scrooge shrinks within me and I am full of seasonal hope and joy once more.

Here’s hoping you have a great holiday preparation time too.