There’s a coyote in the back yard. SO said she saw one there last year, and I’ve seen one while I was on the freeway. (I saw them a lot when I lived in the desert, of course.) First time I’ve seen one in my back yard.
The cat perked up when he saw it.
We have a small pack in our neighborhood. We’re surround by about 12 acres of wetlands, and there’s a lot of wildlife.
When they all start howling together at night, it’s thrilling and bone chilling at the same time.
I can think of at least four ‘outdoor cats’ here, as well as a few dogs. I sent an email to the CofC Chair so she can send a heads-up to people.
I live in the deep suburban wilds of Ohio, and we were pleased to encounter a coyote that had just crossed the road on the way home the other night.
I’ve also heard them howling in the woods at the edge of our property. I have also encountered a skeletal deer carcass in the yard which I think was their doing.
Go, coyotes!
We have a pack that wanders around in our valley. They gather down by the river at night and keen, and it is one of the most eerie, beautiful things I’ve ever heard. Between them and our healthy supply of local raptors, we have very few of the more destructive mammal vermin like rabbits and squirrels. I’m definitely a fan.
I walk my dog at 4:30 AM so it is dark out. I came out the other day and saw two pairs of glowing eyes in my driveway, and they were on somethings big. I immediately thought coyote - but it turned out to be the neighbor’s German Shepherds. I felt kinda stupid…
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I bet that coyote was hungry wanted that chicken for an easy meal.
There were times in S.D. that i thought they were going to come inside to watch TV. I like the sound of their howling if they aren’t too close.
I live about a mile from our local fire station, as the crow flies. Sometimes at night I will hear the siren go off to call in the volunteers.
The siren will often be answered by the howls of many coyotes that seem to be just beyond my yard.
We do not let the cat go outside after dark.
Have you been selling Acme products? 
We’ve got a small pack that must live either within the fringes of our neighborhood park or in the woods just beyond it. On very still nights you can hear them yip.
I have yet to see one, but my neighbor claims she’s seen them strolling down the street in broad daylight during the summer months.
Everybody now keeps their kitties inside.
Last October just after nightfall, a friend who lives nearby was outside fueling a wood furnace, his dachshund Daisy out playing in their wooded area yard. A small yip sound got his attention. In the blink of an eye, Daisy was scooped up in a sprinting coyote’s jaws, carried into the forest. In an instant the 3 yr old family dog was gone, disappearing into the darkness of the trees.
He saw another canine shadow streak by and “if you’ve ever heard a rabbit scream, it was like that” he said, and “it all happened so fast”.
“It was like any regular night, and without any warning of what was to come, in the blink of an eye, horror had unfolded. I could not believe it, happened right in front of me and yet I could do nothing”.
The next day he had a pow wow with the kids, had a living room talk; he decided it was best to them that Daisy had become suddenly ill, had to go the vet where he then passed for unknown reasons.
The ones here are mostly on the west side or over by the river and if you encounter them they look at you like they wonder what you’re doing in their territory.
I’ve never had them in the yard. There was that starving bear in my neighborhood last August but no coyotes.
Rural Ohio here. Lots of coyotes are these parts.
We live near a railroad track. Whenever the train goes by and the whistle is blown, the coyotes will answer it.
Suburbs of Chicago here; I’ve seen coyotes wandering down my street late at night. There are a lot of trees where I live for suburbia, but not much in the way of real groves of trees, and the backyards are pretty small, so I’m surprised to see them when I do. I suspect they’re passing through to other areas. The place I lived in a few years back was near more open and wooded areas (small preserve, golf course, large graveyard), and there was a fire station not far away. If a fire truck roared past, often you’d hear a returning call from what must have been at least a few coyotes.
I’ve also seen foxes, including in my backyard and walking down the sidewalk next to the house, and last winter a fox chose our back porch to house its den. (I was sorely tempted to shove a blanket under there.)
A small city in southern Ohio here. There are lots of coyotes in the surrounding woods and farmland, and I have seen quite a few crossing roads and flattened on them. And as I reported a while back in another coyote thread, my home office overlooks my side yard. One morning as I was working I saw movement in the yard and looked up to see an adult coyote running through the yard. About 20 feet behind it in full pursuit was my 12-pound Jack Russell terrier. I’m not sure what would have happened if the coyote had turned around, but it didn’t, so I’m left with a very amusing memory.
My neighborhood still has a fair number of outdoor cats, so I’m assuming that coyotes are not regular visitors to my yard.
This isexhibit A for why any local predators are silencedquickly in my yard. And Exhibit B. Exhibit C.
I love all animals, and would love to live in harmony with them all, but the harsh truth is coyotes do take small dogs and cats here in suburbia, and my kids won’t buy sudden-onset feline aids or the like. My wife is even smarter.
For their first year, the dogs weren’t allowed outside alone due the the presence of a nesting pair of Great Horned Owls nearby. I’ve watched one of them come over and survey the yard while the dogs were out, and it’s scary to imagine what could happen.
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When I was about 8 or so, my little Border Terrier was out in the back yard when a neighbor was letting their Borzoi get some excersize. I saw this black and white dog coming like an F-15, scoop up my puppy and keep going like it was nothing. She survived her surgeries and all, but I never forgot that. I can’t in good conscience let mine roam the yard now, knowing a similar fate could await them.
That was interesting. It seems like the raccoons almost always traveled in threes, except that one time when one was a skunk. I was surprised to see coyotes and raccoons or opossums in the same picture.
As a general rule, I won’t have the dogs outside without a human present to watch over them – there have been dog poisonings in my development (years back) and last year dogs were deliberately poisoned in a neighboring town. Of course a human can’t protect a dog from being snatched by a coyote, owl, or Borzoi – not to mention one dog I’ve heard was shot – intentionally – while being walked on a leash. But a human’s presence might deter some predators, and a leash-and-harness getup might help you fight off an attacking animal (at least an owl).
I’m in a very suburban area…but we did have a freaking bald eagle in a tree a few hundred yards from out house a few weeks ago. I don’t know if a bald eagle could carry off my 34-pound pit bull, but her American flag bandanna probably wouldn’t deter our national symbol if he was hungry. 
We do have foxes aplenty here, and twice in the last year a fox has followed us, barking at our dogs. That’s right, a fox weighing perhaps ten pounds pursued two adult humans, a 34-pound pit bull and a 58-pound pit bull/hound mix. I have no idea what that fox was thinking, but we hurried inside.
