Monday, October 10, 2011

Coyotes On The Prowl!

The land across the street from our house (within 15 feet).
I love Roanoke/Salem, Virginia. We are surrounded by the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains, the change of seasons, polite people, apple orchards, pumpkin patches, farms, Virginia Tech University, limited traffic etc. I love Roanoke EVEN MORE when I visit another state and it's city. It is then that I realize, "WOW! I love the place I call home." Roanoke is in between intense city life and living in the "Boonies".

Darren and I are fortunate to live in a gorgeous development surrounded by the Shenandoah Mountains. Directly across the street from our home are acres and acres of property that our builders' once planned to build on. We were always so bummed that one day it would be lined with more homes, but due to a failing economy, the builders have put a halt to those future plans. We have been so thankful because we get to enjoy a fabulous view of God's greenery. Unfortunately, that open land warrants a ton of unwanted wildlife. To date, we've seen a fox, a raccoon, groundhogs, deer, all kinds of birds (ie. crows and hawks), rabbits, and mice. Our outdoor trashcan has been demolished and attacked by a bear. OR SO WE THOUGHT. Now, we've been told, it might be coyotes.
We have 3 VERY BRAVE coyotes roaming our neighborhood but strictly the gorgeous land directly across the street from our home. They have even gotten so brave to come into our yard at night. Animal control has finally set up traps and are anxiously awaiting a capture. This morning, animal arrived at 7:30 am (like they have been since Friday of last week) with a SHOT GUN in hand. I guess they are on the hunt to kill. One of the police officers said, "I've been in this business for 25 years and I have never seen a coyote this brave." The officer said the coyote was at least 60 pounds.
(If you look close, you can see, in the above photo, animal control officer holding his shot gun. It felt really weird taking pictures of a police officer. I felt like I was spying on him. Double click on the photo to see it a little more upclose.)

I googled the word coyote, saturday night. Google automatically added the word Virginia to my search. I accepted it and clicked on the first article put out by Wildlife/Fisheries in the state of VA. It had a ton of informative information such as safety issues, what do to if you are approached by one, how you can try to deter them from entering your yard etc. ONE huge warning was to NEVER leave young toddlers unattended if there are known cases of existing coyotes present. IT said that toddlers have been eaten and attacked in their own yards by coyotes. This has really affected me. I've been setting my alarm every night for 2:45 am to see if I can "catch" the coyotes in our yard. Last night, I was in my garage with the doors up. I was organizing my garage and my garage's refrigerator and the fear in me caused me to turn around every few minutes to make sure a vicious coyote wasn't creeping up on me to attack. I am NEVER afraid of things, but this has me really paranoid.

Please pray for ours and our children's safety.

2 comments:

  1. We had a huge Coyote problem back in the suburbs of Boston. I'm so glad you found the information online...I have heard one too many stories involving toddlers and Coyotes.

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  2. We've seen a coyote twice across the street as well. Thanks for posting that animal control is working on it. I wasn't sure if they would get involved or not. Please post any updates. Thanks!

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