What a gorgeous day it turned out to be today. I couldn’t wait for Chet to get home to hit the trail, so I loaded up the dogs and headed to the park. We did one lap around the trail loop and then headed back for one more time. Of course Sampson had to stop for a quick cool off in the dirty water.
I like mud...
Once we hit the trail for the second lap, we encountered a woman and her dog. We had met the dog before, but not his mom. Once she realized my guys were friendly she relaxed her grip on her dog and started chatting. I felt like I had to tell her about my neighbor’s dog as I wanted to warn her to be careful in the woods. Turns out she knows more than I do…she knows what’s up there.
Sarah told me, there are coyotes in the woods. She knows this because her dog found the freshly killed deer and brought her a piece of it.
He doesn't look that mean....
Sarah said she spent an hour trying to get the deer away from her dog, he finally dropped it in some water and couldn’t find it. She also said, there are fisher cats in the woods. She lives much closer to the woods than I do and she has actually seen a fisher cat on her street. She’s also heard them and from what I understand the cry is bone chilling.
I don't know about you, but this scares me more than the coyote!
I shared with Sarah that I have taken to carrying pepper spray and she agreed that it’s not a bad idea to have some spray, whether it be for protection against a wild animal or something else. We exchanged phone numbers and hopefully we can make arrangements to meet out on the trails so we have someone to walk with. After all there is safety in numbers.
I would agree, Jodi, the Fisher is scary as hell. My last house backed up to woods that went on for miles and there was at least one Fisher out there, my neighbor saw it more than once. It’s got a terrifying screetch And climbs trees!! I was terrified it would get my then little 6 lb. teacup poodle [now in heaven] so I never let her out alone back then. Now we have a 7 lb. Shih Tzu puppy and I’m always worried when she’s tethered outside with my husband, although there are mostly open fields & ponds around the house. We don’t leave her alone out there, but when husband gets involved in a project I worry he won’t notice the big bad wolf, coyote, or fisher grabbing my baby!
Kathy, that is scary! It’s good that you don’t leave her outside by herself.
I even worry about my dogs and the yard is fenced in! But in the woods…Delilah is so food motivated I could see her trying to fight a wolf, coyote or fisher for the food! Good lord, it terrifies me.
I know coyotes can be extremely aggressive when hungry and I know they are territorial. When I was growing up in California a woman who lived one street down got attacked by a coyote.