Two things I no longer have to wonder about

We have a coyote. Not in the house, obviously, but one that lives around here somewhere. On multiple occasions recently we’ve seen him while walking Ronan (and on one occasion we probably walked within a few yards of him and didn’t realize it). His love of the field across the road probably has something to do with all the prairie dogs that live there – just a guess.

So far Ronan has only seen him from a distance, and we’ve wondered what he’d do if he saw him up close. And what Mr. Yote would do. My theory was that Ronan would go after him. Either he’d think it was a dog or he’d think it was some kind of wild varmint, and we have plenty of evidence telling us that in both instances he’s going right at it. When he was a puppy he took off after a fox one night, and a couple years ago he chased a seven-point buck a couple hundred yards into the woods.

We now have concrete answers to our questions, because today dog and yote had a close encounter.

Q: What would Ronan do?
A: Chase the coyote.

Q: What would the coyote do?
A: Head the other way.

I managed to yell the dog down before he entered Mr. Yote’s interpersonal space, so that was good. And my yelling hastened the coyote’s retreat, as well. Still, Ronan did not want to leave.

Life with a terrier….

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