If you've ever heard a pack of coy dogs howling, you understand what a hair-raising experience it can be... It can send a shiver right through you, especially if you're not expecting it.
The coy dog are especially thick in our area this year. I was down in a nearby town a few weeks ago, while picking up a few supplies from one of the local general stores. There is a small area where a few tables and chairs are set up in this particular store, and a few of the locals were gathered there on this day. What was the talk? It was about the coy dog sightings in the area this year.
Coy dog are supposedly a mix-breed wild dog, made up of a cross between a coyote and domestic dog. They vary in size from fox like size to ones big enough to drag a small cow from a field, maybe the size of a large German Shepard. They almost always run in packs, mostly at night; although, every once in a while you can hear one out by itself, howling a mournful howl, or you might even occasionally hear a pack out during the heat of the day. Hunger is probably the ultimate motivator. Sometimes they get rather close to human life. One year we heard a pack of them most every night. They were likely living nearby that year.
Talk in the town was that one man had seen a coy dog between his house and barn. That's a bit too close for comfort, when they dare to hang out that close to you. The men that were gathered at the store were talking about gathering up a group of folks, to go out and hunt them to try to lower their population a bit. Three or four stories came up of these dogs hanging a little too close to yards in the neighborhood.
My brother-in-law, who is an avid hunter, tells me these dogs will come in and attack a human, although I've yet to see it. (I actually hope I don't see it.) I've heard of one hunter who prefers to climb a tree and sleep in the woods if it gets too late, because he feels safer there, than out wandering around when the coy dog come out. That's a scary thought, considering the man has a gun with him, and lots of hunting trophies hanging on the walls of his home. I heard a farmer say that the coy dog will come out and eat mice from behind the tractor often while he is tedding hay in his field. I heard them kill a beagle one day... that was the most awful thing I've ever heard while living out here. It made me scream. Needless to say, there is a spooky feeling that comes with these animals... Whether it is myth or real, it keeps you thinking. Do you really want to allow small children to go out and play in the forest without supervision? You might not give it a second thought if you have not heard a pack of dogs for yourself. After hearing these dogs do their war cry, likely you will think twice about it, at the very least.
Two nights ago, we had our turn at a visit with these wild critters. Steve took the dog outside, and they were hanging out there. All of a sudden, Steve and our dog had two packs of dogs howling at them, one on each side of them. Steve said they were so close, he could hear them breathing. You really have to hear them to imagine the feeling this can send through your soul. It really does make the hair rise on the back of your neck. Steve brought the dog in, who was feeling a bit confused by the whole thing, and headed out again, this time with a weapon, just in case he needed it. By the time he got back out there, they were gone.
I tracked them the following morning, to learn where they came from and where they went. Awareness is a good thing. They came down off the hill in front of our house, in a fairly spread out group. Most of them were on the upper side of the drive way, but a small group of them was also split off onto the lower side. Likely, signs of Steve and the dog caused their pack to split into two.
For the most part, they avoided our yard, but the small group walked down the inside edges of the forest on the lower side of the yard. The larger group avoided our property altogether, but still came through the woods between our house and the field on the adjacent property. They came out of the woods and into the field, then proceeded down the edge of the field and back into the woods on the bottom end, likely headed for the brook. Later that eve, Steve heard them again. It sounded like they followed the brook up toward the sheep farm up the road a mile or so.
After seeing their tracks, I'm quite sure a pack passed through the same field, but higher up the hill, just a week or so ago. The snow has been so dry and fluffy, that all tracks are filled in almost as soon as you move your foot out of place, so you must use the placement of each track as the clue to what made the track. I knew that whatever had passed through was in a group. It could have been turkeys, but by the pace it seemed more like dogs to me. After seeing the tracks I know were caused by dogs, I'm quite sure the earlier tracks were made by dogs too.
That's a cool thing about the snow. You can see evidence of everything that crosses the field, from mice to deer. It's pretty fascinating, especially if you walk the field every day. The tracks always have a story to tell. Both the dog and I enjoy learning the news of the field during our walk each Winter day.
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