Coyote season

from VPR.net, Robert F. Bukaty, AP

So, I am not much of a coyote fan. I know many people love having them around and hearing them around.  I am more of the love-knowing-they-are-around/exist camp.  I like them more than grizzly bears, but less than black bears, and certainly less than I like my dogs, chickens, and own life.  I hear them at night, yelping and howling to each other, the normal sounds of country darkness.  The other week, though, I kept hearing just one, barking enough like a dog that I questioned whether it really was a coyote.  A few barks and then it did its characteristic coyote howl and its species was confirmed.  Still, I wondered why was there just one and why did it seem so close to the house.  One evening, while the fall light remained, I was gathering dried maple leaves to store our carrots in, and heard the single coyote.  I don’t really enjoy the sounds of coyotes at night and I enjoy the sounds of coyotes in daylight even less.  The other day, I listened to a program on coyotes on Vermont Edition on VPR.  I was hopeful that it would calm my nerves, make me feel better about coyotes and assure me that they posed no risk to us, but instead it kind of confirmed that the best thing to do if you hear a coyote while hiking, for example, is to get your dogs back on their leashes and run to the car.  Great!  Not what I wanted to hear.  At least I have the time change working in my favor tomorrow so that it won’t be pitch black in the morning when I take the dogs out and let the chickens out before work!