There are no ******* around here son.

[inluvwithsara]

It was back in 96 and I had just returned from 6 months outside of Lindale, TX...and was back in Springfield/Burke VA.  I was pulling security for my church which is right by Burke Lake Park...(decent sized wooded park, with lots of deer and a big lake)...its 12 midnight, so I hop out of my car check all the doors and windows of the church and begin to leave the parking lot when a big old coyote runs infront of my car followed by three little ones...It was a full moon, or near one so I watched them run off the road, and haul butt further and further into the woods...on my way home droped by the local police station just to drop the news...they were polite and said they would have animal control call me...but it was most likely just a dog of some sort...
in the morning I went back and found all king of sign...tracks, and a now striped small whitetail back where they were headin' to...so I drove around to the park and just thought I'd tell the one of the Rangers...who mocked me and told me I didn't know what I was talking about, after informing him I just spent 6 months in east TX with them signing under my window and eating our neighbor's chickens and cats...
he wouldn't even go look at the place....
so animal control wouldn't listen either...I called the only honest folks in the Business, Fish and Game...they were real cool....promised to go check out the site said there were rumors of them 4 counties out, but this was the first they'd heard in Fairfax County...in a couple years...they would make it official that they were here...all the others denied it...
Since then, I have seen 5 dead road kill coyotes, and sign galore...but the parks still blew me off...
till this past spring...oops...one trys to take a ladies little dog of her leash in MD...now we are seeing them, and the paper's writing about them...
but we don't have any coyotes around here...HA!  All the local dogs won't go out at night if their land backs up to the woods in the area...my 125 pound lab, won't leave the deck...my neighbors German sheaperd refuses to leave the house untill the sun comes up...once it does, all the dogs run around with the hackles up, sniffing out trails inside their fenced yards...cats are disapeiring all over...
Oops...

[propredator]

I used to live kinda back in the sticks for around here and one winter i had a yote come an howel for a couple of nights in a row rite across the road from the house.went out to feed our border colley one night and he werent around,could here em barken a long ways off.figuared he might be in trouble so i got a light an went in the direction of his bark.He was about a half mile from the house by a big brush pile a dozer made 5 years back.yote tracks every where in the snow an the dog had blood on his neck.From what i could tell it werent his though.i drug him home an the yote never came back.
 I belive the yote was in heat an my dog stood his ground an became the alfa male that night an maybe serviced the gal
 when i was a kid many years ago i shot 2 yote pups in the summer time.Both had dark spots on em in a couple different areas.Back then there was a bounty for yotes at 10 dollars a head an my dad belong to the local coyote club back then.Made 40 bucks on them 2 pups.
 coydogs are the product of dogs an yotes inter breeding.sum of them can get pretty big compared to the normal yote.
 You see a coyote around here ever now and then but if you hunt in the evening an one howls sum wares you find out your in the company of a lot of em.just a guess but i would say there are at least anyware from 5 to 10 every square mile. :eek:

[twodollarpistol]

Math aint my strong suit, but, how did you manage to make $40 on two dogs at $10 each?? :wink:

[1911crazy]

Pets that won't go outside sure raises a flag to me.  My daughter and son moved out to their own place my son rents a room from her to cover expenses.  They both work different hours so someone gets stuck walking the dog at different times.  Here's the first clue her cat george is around 22 to 25lbs.  he went out at first but won't go out anymore and this cat isn't scared of nothing he tore up my 100lb lab all the time.  I told my son something had to chase it and it had to be something really big too. Maybe coyotes or possibly a mountainlion who knows?  My wife and daughter are walking the dog and my wife spots a long body tannish orange color but there was a log blocking it.  Now the dog goes walking with my son and it won't always go down a certain trail sometimes it turns back to the car.  My son has seen the mountainlion too at different times. It was spotted a week ago two blocks away and the cops were called and the cops seen it too.  My point is you just may have something bigger than a coyote you never know but it sure takes alot for the dog not to go out at all.  I trained my kids well about being aware in the woods to survive and live with predators around and pay attention to your pets it just may keep you alive too.                                  BigBill

[propredator]

Two dollar the county bounty was 10 dollar a head and the coyote club my dad belong to paid 10 a head also.Maybe i sould have added that to the story.  

[twodollarpistol]

Two dollar the county bounty was 10 dollar a head and the coyote club my dad belong to paid 10 a head also.Maybe i sould have added that to the story.  

That explains that. Knew I was missing something.
 Have a good one Sir

[inluvwithsara]

I always carry my 44 SBH 4 5/8 with me...my mom said something that nailed it well...she doesn't know animals more than pets, and said, Joe the lab always sticks his head out the door first, and "looks up in the trees back and forth..." I finaly saw this and it is what I thought...he is trying to catch a scent...when he does, he goes back in the house...when he doesn't he will hesitate, but slowly creep to the wood line, do his bussiness and run like heck back...yet no matter what, if I go out first, (44mag on the hip like always) he comes on out, but always stays close...he won't go out with mom, but always with my wife...(who is also armed/woods wise)  I am seeing more sign these days...but still nothing bigger than bobcat prints...I am temted to get a motion sensor camera, and set it back there and bait it...

[inluvwithsara]

My wife drops our daughter off with my follks twice a week, and has seen them crossing the street on mutiple ocations...and my momma's friend who lives in fairfax county too, had to call animal control to get a black bear out of her tree...
Now I have "run into" black bears quite a bit in the hills of VA, and never had need to fear or take action...(maybe It that Hoppes #9 cologne)...but they always take off in the oposite direction...but with the coyotes, mountain lions, and bears(oh my) comming to town, my friends are thinkin' fred the gun nut might be right in going heeled all the time.  Of course we know in northern VA the real threat is the two legged kind...        :excuseme:

[Bigfoot Researcher]

Maryland DNR has admitted that coyotes are in EVERY Md county.
Track, sightings or roadkill have established this fact.
Virginia aint but a trickle of water away ....  :wink:

[gwhilikerz]

For years F&W told us we didn't have bears here in Ky, even tho many reported seeing them. Now at least two people have been fined for shooting bears we don't have :grin: . They say the same thing about panthers/cougars even tho sightings are increasing. Guess we will continue "not having" them until someone shoots one.

[Bigfoot Researcher]

Speaking of cougar and other OOPS (Out Of Place Species)
check out this site :
http://www.easterncougarnet.org/index.html