[violagirl]

I can't believe what happened on our walk tonight.

There is a quarry behind our house where we often bring our dogs for offleash walks. It is a pretty busy spot with machinery during the day, bordered by a highway on one side and with people on quads often going back there.

While I know there are deer who often come out in the field behind the house and have seen coyote tracks I never thought one would be brazen enough to come out when we were back there.

The dogs generally stay pretty close. They might run into the bushes a bit if they hear a bird or something but don't go too far away. One is more independent (I think she got a few more of the JRT genes), she doesn't always come back as readily as the others. Usually I'll keep walking and whistle for her and as I get farther away she'll come hurrying back.

Tonight there was 4 of us walking with 4 dogs. We had been there awhile and were on our way back to the house. So it's not like the noise we were making was unexpected or anything. So my dog decides to go into some raspberry bushes where she sometimes chases squirrels. We keep walking a ways, but then i heard her bark, which she will do if her leash catches on something, so i started back to get her. We were just around a slight bend in the road, as I went back around I saw the bushes at the edge of the road move so I knew she was caught closeby. As I am walking to get her..maybe 20 feet away..a coyote comes out of the bushes right beside her...like RIGHT beside her.

According to my husband who was around the corner, because I don't really remember what I did, I just used my mean stern voice I use when dogs are getting into something they shouldn't and the coyote was gone in a flash. Meanwhile, I was trying to untangle my dog from the bush and my other two dogs ran up, and while we have worked on emergency comes, I scared my smaller dog by my tone of voice and at first he wasn't going to let me near him to catch his leash. I was scared they were going to go after it. But I managed to get all the leashes. Fortunately Bean was caught on the bush by her leash, she would be the one more inclined to chase the coyote while ignoring me.

I was just very surprised that a coyote would dare to come out with 4 people there.

I also learned a few things about myself. That I actually CAN be calm in an emergency and that I would have been willing to rip that coyote in half with my bare hands if I had gotten close enough.

I guess as much as i hate the dog park we will be going there for our adventures from now on.