A little to Close for Comfort


 
Rich Dahl

Rich Dahl

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Our new black lab puppy Abby was in the backyard by herself when I heard her whining. I went to see what was going on and she was right up against the back door.
When I opened the door she came running in.
She is a fearless little sucker so I went out to see what was going on.
This is what I saw up in the tree in our yard.
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[/url]100_2223 by Richard Dahl, on Flickr[/IMG]

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[/url]100_1949 by Richard Dahl, on Flickr[/IMG]



This sucker was huge and while I was out there Abby came back out and that owl just focused right on her. So I called Whitney our 85 pound retriever, husky, coyote mix out and the owl decided to go find something easier to deal with.
 
I saw one of those perched on the top corner of our house one night while I had one of our dogs out. I'm glad the chihuahua stayed inside, it might not have turned out well.
 
You can't see those suckers at night, but normally you can hear them. I worry about my young pup so I always go out with her and carry a big torch light.
About a month ago we had a screech owl up in my neighbors pine ( remember My Cousin Vinny ?)
Sucker drove me nuts for two hours and I almost did a Joe Pesci and fire off my Beretta.

Tim
 
That owl looks ****ed too! Your little furball is probably telling the other dogs at the dog park that he fought it off!
 
That's a big un! I saw a nice big owl like that when I was a kid - it was perched on a big light pole overlooking some work shops, corrals, & barns. Had a big hawk bounce off my rear glass door sometime during 2010-2011.... It hung around for a few days, always liked seeing it.
 
My neighbor had a Maltese mix that she would just let loose in her fenced in back yard to TCB. Heck, I do the same with my doxies.
But another neighbor pointed out to her that a couple hawks would start circling when her dog was out back, so she started going out with her!

And my SIL had a couple mini doxies. Well, one was mini in length only! :D A coyote got the smaller one one day, WHILE they were out with them! Poor Vanessa is still mourning her!
 
Phil Perrin said:
My neighbor had a Maltese mix that she would just let loose in her fenced in back yard to TCB. Heck, I do the same with my doxies.
But another neighbor pointed out to her that a couple hawks would start circling when her dog was out back, so she started going out with her!

And my SIL had a couple mini doxies. Well, one was mini in length only! :D A coyote got the smaller one one day, WHILE they were out with them! Poor Vanessa is still mourning her!
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that'd be rough.
 
You need one of these. Insert pellet, pump it up 10 times and aim for the breast. Problem solved

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We had an owl out back a couple of years ago. I have a garage at the back of my property that I use for mowers and such. I was working out there one day and a rabbit ran in. I chased it out into the newly harvested corn field. Sure enough the owl got it. Oh, well.

We haven't seen too many rabbits around the last couple of years because of the foxes. There have been 2-3 of them hanging out near the back garden eating all kinds of critters. They run around and play then sun themselves in the morning.
 
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Bob Correll said:
Might want to rethink that one Chuck. :)
http://www.gpnc.org/raptors1.htm
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A long time ago I was really into Pigeon Racing. Without going into a lot of detail, it can be a pretty expensive hobby. You can easily pay over $1,000 for a prize bird. I was living in the Bay Area at the time and one of my fellow flyers was exercising his flock of birds out of his loft in his back yard. Suddenly one of his birds was knocked out of the sky by a "hawk" and was killed. I've had this happen to my birds up here in Redding and it is a sickening thing to watch, especially after spending so much time and money developing these birds for the race. Anyway, this guy was incensed and when the hawk came down to claim its prey, he shot and killed it. A neighbor witnessed this and immediately turned him in. It turned out that the bird he killed was a Peregrine Falcon and he was in a serious mess with the law. It didn't matter that his pigeon was a "pet" and was extremely valuable. These birds, the falcon of course, were protected at the time and I guess they still are. I'm not sure how this ended up as I was in the process of moving north. I remember he was fighting it in court and had racked up some hefty attorney fees.
 
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A little different scenario than Cliffs about wild animals.
When Barb and I take the dogs out into the fields at the end of our street I always take my .38 S&W bodyguard with me. Lots of coyotes around here and it's been so dry that the coyotes are running out of game to feed on and have been getting aggressive with people just walking their dogs.
A while back a guy shot and killed a coyote that attacked his dog. What a horror story that turned out to be, he was charged with discharging a firearm within the city limits and hunting without a license.
Even though his dog was on a leash and was severely injured but survived.
Ended up costing him over $2000 to save his pup and $1300 in fines and another $1400 for attorney fees to get the charge reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor.
The odd thing is that if he had been walking a horse or a cow it would have been perfectly legal because you have the right to protect your domestic livestock but not your pets.
Would I do the same thing he did....Hell yes!
 
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I know it sucks to say it but they gotta eat just like us.
If you don't live in the city, but out in the country you just have to deal with it and be careful letting small pets out.
I have 3 GS's now and they are big enough to handle themselves. ( I still watch the pup, she's only 3 1/2 months)
Big enough to scare off a hawk or owl ( 25lbs) but not enough to scare off a coyote or fox.
She has her big sister and brother to watch out for her , besides me.

Tim

Tim
 
This thread has reminded me of a friend in the next county over. She had a Jack Russell that she would leave outside during the day in nice weather. He had water and shelter.
But she had to start kenneling him inside because a pack of coyotes moved into the area. Poor pup!
She said she was thinking about getting a gun to protect him. I told her that that might get her in trouble and to buy a pellet gun. She asked what good it would do. I told her to pump the snot out of it and aim carefully. They WOULD get the message!
 
Tim
I hear what you are saying but if you google coyotes in the city you will find there is as many coyotes in the cites as outside of them. Very adaptive animals. New York has one of the largest coyote populations in the country!
They can eat anything they can catch, but not my pups.
 
timothy said:
I know it sucks to say it but they gotta eat just like us.
If you don't live in the city, but out in the country you just have to deal with it...


Ummm, no! No you don't! They don't call coyotes the great white on land for nothing. They will feast on anything from a grass hopper, to a bull elk! It may be different in Illinois, but here they are shot on sight, day or night. We had several show up about 7/8 years ago. You could hear them barking and howling at night as we would sit around the Bon fire. They lasted about a year or so, now it's quiet at night...
Tim
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Phil Perrin said:
She said she was thinking about getting a gun to protect him. I told her that that might get her in trouble and to buy a pellet gun. She asked what good it would do. I told her to pump the snot out of it and aim carefully. They WOULD get the message!
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This may vary locally, but around here there's no difference between a gun and a pellet gun as far as firing within the city limits. My dad got in trouble once for shooting his BB gun in the backyard. We used to shoot the BB guns out there all the time when I was a kid but things have changed.
 
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