by Jessica A. Tucker

Created on: June 20, 2009   Last Updated: December 23, 2009

In the depths of British Columbia, the concern of a coyote or coyotes stealing a dog away is not unwarranted. With the badly reputed nature of the wild dog known as the coyote, it was very normal to hear of extreme measures being taken by farmers and home owners to keep these nasty little devils out of yards and chicken coops.

A common soundtrack to outdoor evenings as dusk begins to approach is the eerie song of the pups billowing in the air. Yips, yaps and squeals can be heard in the distance expelling octaves even impossible for a human voice box. Packs of seasoned voices will ominously chirp back and forth to each other over the intersecting valleys usually announcing a feast with a song so sorrowfully sweet.

These wild dogs love to torment house pets and farm animals. A mother commonly will be sent as bait to entice house dogs. She will proudly prance past close enough to leave her smell and to find a moment where she can make herself visible to her canine prey driving dogs into a frantic barking frenzy.

Taking my dog out for a run late one afternoon, we ran into an amusing situation when happening into one of these troublesome animals. We had already made the turn to come home when my dog started putting on the strangest show that I had ever seen from him.  What ever had triggered his senses was so strong he could have cared less that I was standing there calling him.  As he danced in circles, nose to the sky voicing the oddest high pitched whines I had ever heard from him, he was stunned. He calmed down after a moment and I thought we were again on our way again. Until, further down the old logging road when he bolted off into the brush covered creek bed and up the mountainside after some thing that had caught his attention.

Due to the dense cover, I could only hear a tangled rustling off in the bush. A moment later, the movement of two animals could be heard taking off through the brush. There was my dog hard on the heels of a little coyote, dutifully chased the animal away up the hill away from me. Once it was out of my way he quickly turned and came back to my side. Commending him for listening and protecting, we continued on our way home without any more trouble. 

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