Filed under: animals, border collies, canine, dogs, mutts, pets, wildlife | Tags: animals, aussie chow, border collie, coyotes, cute, dogs, pets, wildlife
here’s a small update on the dogs since the coyotes arrived(click)
pickles thinks she is SO tough when cody bear is around, but the truth of the matter is, until these coyotes finish eating the ferals and move on, little miss gran pick macgregor is NOT allowed in the back yard without her big brother.
she’s too small. a delicate flower, really.
cody has the ability to fluff up and make himself look very big. and he moves fast, and he barks and the coyotes look at him like, “ok, dude! what’s your problem?”
plus, he is well versed in weaponry. here he wields an intimidating stick.
but seriously,….do you see how the sunrise makes his bun fur just glow in these photos?
…..
Filed under: animals, cats, dogs, nature, pets, wildlife | Tags: animals, cats, coyotes, dogs, nature, pets, wildlife
oh dear. there was some excitement at the house this morning.
some background. our property is INFESTED with feral cats. our city has no real trap and release program for the public. (though ,we can pay to have them removed.)
anyway….the cats are causing problems:
1. they taunt the dogs and terrorize my kitty. they even go into the back yard and the dogs chase them and sometimes catch them. when the cats are caught, cody bear usually gets beat up by his prey! they will park it right outside the window and stare at the dogs as the dogs go bat-shit crazy barking!
2. they are pooping all over, howling when in heat, waking us up in the middle of the night with shreaking cat fights. it scares my delicate natured kitty and is really such a pain in the ass. they’re even causing a strange health problem with cody bear. (i’ll spare you the details) and they run around on the roof when i’m trying to sleep. creepy, actually. what the hell is going ON up there!?
3. they’re coyote bait.
there is a pair of coyotes that have moved in and are feasting. they won’t run out of food anytime soon. we encounter them on walks and have seen them eating. they’re out all the time, even at noon. they’ve killed in my driveway before and the howling. oh.
well, this morning the dogs were sitting on the couch, looking out the picture window by the front door, waiting for breakfast. they started barking and i assumed it was the cats. but no, it was a coyote in the drive. i opened the door to yell at it….and the mate was 4 feet away from me!
i yelled and yelled and they ran. i chased them and rand down the drive.
now, i do love coyotes. i do. and these two are well fed and fluffy. beautiful, really. but they can’t feel comfortable eating at my house. i don’t want cody bear or pickles to get hurt. i get the whole circle of life thing. i can dig it….i just don’t want to be confronted with it all the time or…have it wake me up.
“that’s no dog!”
oh, by the way, there is a caption writing contest at my other blog today: http://dogdailyphoto.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/dog-daily-photo-write-our-caption/
Filed under: animals, dogs, life, nature, pets, plants, wildlife | Tags: animals, coyotes, dogs, life, nature, plants, wildlife
so yes…i’ve chosen this euphorbia (one of the many varieties) to symbolize my day…
so, we had an….encounter with some native wildlife on our third walk of the day. it was late. cody bear and pickles and i were just returning home from a shortsky, when the dogs saw something! we were passing our neighbor’s house, and a mere 40 feet or so from our driveway….we were walking right by two coyotes that had caught one of those feral cats that has been vexing cody bear!!!
they were eating it and one of the coyotes started approaching us, head low, all stealthy like. i yelled “back off…back offff!” then the bear barked and pickles started spinning and yipping. you guys…tonight’s nature appeared to roll his eyes at us and circle away back towards dinner. clearly he did NOT want me hurling my empty poobag at him!
no one was hurt!
prickly? out of control? today was full of uncomfortable and unfortunate encounters. i’m so glad it is over.
there were some good highlights, though. pickles’ trip to the hardware store:
my boss calling to say, “i just wanted to say thanks.”
and!…my family will be here in a few days!!!
Filed under: animals, dogs, nature, pets, wildlife | Tags: animals, coyotes, dogs, life, nature, pictures, urban wildlife, wildlife
took the dogs for a shortski walk a few minutes ago. just a constitutional through the neighborhood. as we’re nearing my driveway i see a coyote tritty-trottin’ up the street toward us.
rushed the dogs inside…grabbed the nearest camera.
cheeky fellow, looking right at me.
these were taken from my driveway.
know what is strange about the following photo?
not the coyote. i see him all the time, usually around noon when i’m home for lunch. no, what’s strange is the sudden traffic. we NEVER get that many cars driving up the road at once. 6 cars suddenly.
ok, back to work
Filed under: animals, dogs, nature, pets, wildlife | Tags: animals, coyotes, dogs, life, nature, wildlife
less then a minute before my alarm clock went off this morning, there was a loud and savage yipping coming from outside my bedroom window. seconds after the yipping began, the howling of a successful coyote kill started. it sounded like at least 4 coyotes, maybe more, had killed one of those feral cats i’m always complaining about.
my heart was pounding and the dogs were freaked. my cat, an hour later, is still cautiously padding around the house, peeking out windows. i think she knows what happened.
every morning the first order of business is letting the dogs out to take care of dog business. i couldn’t do it. i waited till after some of the traffic: workers, walkers, the kids at the bus stop in front of my house. after the bus left, i decided it was safe.
they can easily jump my fence to get to pickles. i doubt they would mess with cody bear, but he might jump the fence and go after them if he saw them. i don’t know. most of the time, if he smells that they have been in the yard, my big bear acts all scared and won’t leave the back patio!
now i’m running late because i stayed in bed an extra half hour! i COULD have gotten up, but i needed to snuggle and comfort my doggies!
i need to get moving: i’m picking up bagels for work this morning!
Filed under: animals, border collies, dogs, pets, photography | Tags: animals, border collies, corgis, coyotes, dogs, pets, photography, puppies
i shall tell the tale of today in between puppy pictures from our early morning puppy socialization class…
first, woke up at 5 and let the dogs out. pickles and i walk out like nothing has changed, but cody bear, my 4 year old aussie chow (the one who always tears through the yard hell on paws) would NOT venture into the yard. he was terrified. turns out, a coyote had been in our yard during the night. he’s fine now…
off to puppy socialization hour…
there weren’t as many puppies as last week, but pickles had the time of her life. it was hot so she tired out early. in that shot she had just exited the puppy pool. everyone was amazed at how much she has grown.
here she is being double teamed by a corgi and a border collie…which was fine with her.
after puppy class i dropped her home, checked on cody bear who was considerably less freaked and went to a friend’s for lunch and to take pics of her and her dogs.
(here is pickles flying over the grass with her new corgi friend)
then pickles’ first bath at the self serve dog wash. she went nuts and absolutely hated it. and her first order of business afterwards….getting as dirty as possible.
then the three of us took an awesome nap. 2 hours. we were all zonked.
the rest of the day was very unproductive. and my mom told me it wasn’t nice to blog about the guy with the big sweaty belly.
and that was our day…
oh, wait, no…there’s more. don’t get mad at me….
my cat likes to lounge on top of the refrigerator.
anyway….she flicked her tail just as i was shutting it and her tail got shut in. she hates me now!
Filed under: animals, birds, nature, weather, wildlife | Tags: animals, birds, coyotes, hawks, nature, raptors, volunteering, wildife rehabilitation, wildlife
ah, babies. baby animals, that is…
saturdays i have an animal care shift at a local wildlife rehab center from 9am to 1pm. we never get out right at 1, now that the babies are here! that baby dinosaur above is a cooper’s hawk. we have tons of baby cooper’s and a couple of them are hungry as hell. whenever i see an animal in rehab with a healthy appetite, i get pretty psyched. “you’re gonna make it, little dude!”
currently, the babies on site include, but are not limited to (because i was delirious from the heat and may have forgotten some critters): baby cooper’s hawks, baby screech owls, baby great horned owls, baby coyotes, baby bobcats, baby raccoons and baby red-tail hawks.
that’s the baby red-tail! and i mean a way baby- baby. he needs help eating.
by the time we were supposed to go feed the baby bobcats, the sun had already fried most of my already misfiring brain and i forgot to grab my camera. the kittens….they were insanely cute. in fact, they should be fined for surpassing the official “limit of adorableness.” the kittens are there with a mom and they were sooo freaked out by the hose when we had to refill the water bowl. but they are ….kittens. their mom was much smaller than our resident bobcats.
after the cute babies were fed, medicated if needed, put in clean cages…it was time for crappy labor. so here’s where i apologize to my co-volunteer, L, for having a temper tantrum when i got the wagon stuck in between an enclosure and an obnoxious and STILL INFURIATING bale of hay! sorry girl!
regarding woody, the coyote i have posted about. he is still holding steady, but i don’t think he hears very well. he LOVES getting in his crate, which makes it easy to take him to his outdoor enclosure while we clean up his messy mess.
Filed under: animals, dogs, nature | Tags: animals, coyotes, cute, dogs, ecology, nature, rehabilitation, wildlife
i thought i would update you (and by “you” i think i mean dennis‘ mom cuz i’m not sure who else is interested) on the status of the coyote pup.
i’m only there on saturdays, so i have to get my details from one of the techs on staff. at this point it is probably looking like he won’t be releasable. there is something wrong with his coyote noggin. he is doing MUCH better, apparently. when he first came in he could only walk in circles, one direction. and there is a question of how good his vision is, but after being here 3 weeks, he is getting better. so, the tech said if he isn’t releasable, he may become an education animal and a surrogate.
personally, i don’t think he hears well, if at all. but according to them, certain sounds really scare him. but one of the vet students and i could not get him to hear anything, like clapping. in fact, we would clap and clap and he wouldn’t react unless he saw the clap out of the corner of his eye and he would jerk around. she said that was possible with hydrocephaly, if that’s what he has. i wonder if hearing would improve as his condition gets better? poor guy.
he’s cute as can possibly be. and oh-so-tiny. some people are totally comfortable with him and will go in and cuddle him. i’m ….well, i’m just not there. to me, in his picture, that one eye looks a little “helter skelter” but it could just be because i’m not a mammal gal, i’ve mostly dealt with raptors.
whenever i see him, i go all googly woogly. let’s face it….CHICKS DIG BABY ANIMALS!
Filed under: animals, canine, nature, wildlife | Tags: animals, coyotes, dogs, mammals, naturel, predators, wildife
he’s eating little pieces of mouse soaked in formula. and he LOVES it!
this coyote is at a wildlife rehab center. NOT A PET.
Filed under: animals, dogs, life, nature, wildlife | Tags: animals, coyotes, dogs, mammals, nature, volunteer, wildlife
no, i didn’t get a new puppy!!!
this is a baby coyote. “oh how cute!” is what you’re thinking. SO SMALL and precious. he slept most of the morning during my shift today. then he woke up while we were examining a couple baby red-tail orphans. he saw c. getting his lunch ready, but she was taking TOO LONG. so the pupster, wild child, sits his butt down, jams his little coyote buns into the floor as far as he can, throws his head allllll the way back and lets go this crazy puppup howl. SO CUTE!!!
what a love!
