Coyotes In My Yard?

My neighbor Jim called the other day to warn us that he saw a coyote in our yard, for us to be careful.

Careful? I don’t think coyotes attack humans. We are too big for them to snag us in jugular vein and drag us back to their den. I think he probably meant be careful because a coyote from the wild could be carrying rabies.

I checked the yard several times and I haven’t seen a coyote or any signs of one… no Acme Dynamite boxes or Acme Giant Boxing Glove on a spring machine or anything like that, but I will keep an eye out.

Then I remembered about a year or so ago a man who has a sizable amount of land who raised cattle at the foot of Blackjack Mountain, about 4 miles away, was telling in the paper of always being on the lookout for coyotes and he has killed several. He also raised sheep, which would probably be the coyote’s likely target. The man has died fairly recently… which might be another blog entry one day.

Then, speaking of mountains, I thought of Sweat Mountain, which is even closer. Last Friday we looked at a new subdivision at the foot of Sweat Mountain. We were not interested in buying, we just wanted to look a new house a friend recently bought. We didn’t know which house she bought so could only guess and speculate. However, while there we did look at a model opened house and thought it looked nice. And the best part, only a small patio and hardly no yard, the yard work is contracted with monthly fees you pay to association. But getting back to the house inside: It looked quiet nice and plush – but after studying the rooms and storage space, closet space, dens, computer rooms, and all – it was smaller than our house now, we would have to give up a lot… we were dazzled by the large kitchen, stone tile in the living area, and the interior decorating. I don’t like the part of giving up a lot.

But that new subdivision took a huge chunk out of the bottom part of a mountain. It looks to maybe 50 to 100 acres big. The wildlife had to relocate.

There are more and more subdivisions popping up. And that is why Jim saw a coyote the other day, and that is why several cub bears were seen in Fulton and Cobb County last years.

We humans are like a huge colony of termites destroying all habitats.

But remember, if you live in newly developed subdivision be kind to the wild animals seen running around. They probably have more of a right to be there than you, and they can probably show you where their ancestors marked it off with urine stains, the most official border that Mother Nature understands.