Evening Serenade
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I just walked out to my shop to put some stuff in the freezer and heard the neighbors dogs raising all kinds of commotion. On the way back to the house I went to the front facing east where the neighbors are and listened. It's a clear calm night and sounds are easily picked up above the drone of the cotton gin and town just a short distance from me. Once the dogs settled down I heard them. When I was a kid I bunked at my grandparents house on the ranch in my dads bedroom. It was actually the back porch closed in with six windows in it facing south and east for a breeze. Many a night I laid there listening to bull bats and owls and sometimes a cow bawling for its calf that was shipped out. Then there was the coyotes. I almost wanted to hear them and sometimes before I dozed off my wish was granted. It was almost like they were talking and I'm sure in some way they do and I would lay there trying to figure out just where they were. Maybe this is why my dad was obsessed with them when he was young. Their hides was his source of income because you didn't get paid or have an allowance when you lived on a ranch. At least not back in the early forties. Lot different now. Ranchers kids have a Polaris to ride and a King Ranch Diesel to get to school in. Not saying that's a bad thing if you can afford it. For all I know there might be some fourteen year old boys or girls running steel traps every morning before their chores then school somewhere in the country. So I stood there and listened tonight and could hear that sharp little panting sound a coyote makes and then the yips that you imagine are four or five yotes are making as they are running then dead quiet. The dogs don't make a sound either. Then the howl, and the hair on the back of my neck stands up a little. Miss Oliver better have her chickens in the hen house tonight or theirs gonna be some missing laying hens. I have a cotton tail call in my ranch bag but I wouldn't dare give it a blow around here. I don't even know how to use the dang thing and maybe it would scare them off but for now I'll just listen. One of these days though.............
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Coyotes are wonderful animals, fun to watch, smart, adaptable.
I also really need to learn how to call them.
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@rhyno
When I was about twelve years old a friend of mine's neighbor had a coyote pup. It never domesticated. It grew a little and stayed chained in a dog house the old man built. He could handle it somewhat but it was very aggressive and ultimately they loaded it up and turned it loose out in an area called Cheapside west of the town I lived it. It was pretty rough looking from being in captivity and would eat but when you approached it it growled and backed up to its shelter. Another friend of mine had a hybrid coyote that did domesticate. That was a dangerous looking animal and was a one man only creature. I have seen Australian Blue Heelers like that. Right here where I live now is only a few hundred yards from the city limits but we have wild pigs and deer in the area. The coyotes are in a little finger of brush maybe forty acres but they have plenty of country due north and are very numerous. They killed my neighbors dog about fifty yards from my house and three little dogs on the adjacent road parallel to mine. The people just west of me a hundred yards or so found one of their dogs half eaten about the same distance from their house in their hay field. Pretty sure its coyotes. On a different subject about two weeks ago a woman was killed by feral hogs east of Houston and this morning one woman was killed and another injured by a pack of dogs. That was in a rough neighborhood so I have an idea what breed of dog that was. Three dogs were contained by law enforcement when they arrived on the scene but too late one woman was already dead and the other chewed up bad.
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I enjoyed your story about listening to the coyotes in the distance as a young boy. I can very much relate. I lease a piece of land in the Okefenokee swamp in GA that I started out originally pursuing wild hogs. That spread to White Tail dear. During the past 5 years of this process the coyotes have proven to be the most elusive of all three species. I upgraded to NV & Thermal yet getting the dogs to come out of the thick brush after dark has been a steep learning.
curve.
More to follow
