Strange animal behavior

A very strange thing happened in our yard last week and I have never witnessed such animal behavior before. It all started on the morning of July 22 when my husband and I saw 10 coyotes walking in a line at the bottom of the BLM hill that's behind our house. Four of the coyotes were full-size adults but the other six were still smaller pups. They all trotted to the top of the steep hill and then started howling.

During the last several weeks we've been seeing two particular coyote pups eating little red berries off some large bushes in our yard. One of the coyotes has beautiful coloring and the other is very skinny. One early morning this week I saw two coyotes crouching under a garden bench just 30 feet away from our house. When I yelled for my husband to chase the coyotes away, I saw the bigger one begin to run away toward the hill while the smaller one was still hiding under the bench. The strange part is our big cat Clyde was alongside him. My husband was just six feet away before the coyote took off running and our cat came over to my husband.

I've never heard about a coyote lying down near a cat before, unless they're planning to eat the cat! Clyde is a very large cat. He's 3 feet long (including his tail) and 16 inches high. Do you think the coyotes thought Clyde was part of their family? The coyotes certainly have been hanging out in our yard a lot this summer. Their scat, (manure, dung, guano) is all around our yard and it's a very dark black color with lots of tiny red berries in it. Clyde's instinct should keep him away from coyotes. Do you have any ideas about this predicament? If so, please give me a call at 782-5802.

Don't trash our

beautiful community

There are 15 old tires stacked in piles that someone recently dumped out here in Fish Springs and just over the hill someone dumped and shot up a computer, model boats and more than a dozen phone books. They left lots of other trash too.

A couple of our good neighbors have been filling up 55 gallon bags of trash and taking it to the local landfill. We appreciate that very much. Neighbors, keep an eye on what's going on in our nearby foothills and report it to the authorities.

n Linda Monohan may be reached at 782-5802.