Call of the Wild

Three days ago my doorbell rings. It's my neighbor bringing me flowers. I asked her what the special occasion was. She said that the special occasion was that her husband bought her flowers for Valentines Day but they were going out of town and wanted someone to enjoy the flowers while they were still looking beautiful. I happily accepted. While she was here, she apologized for ringing my doorbell so late the other night. I told her that I was sick the other day and must not have heard the door bell. The dog usually barks, but I must not have heard him either. She said that she came to to check on the dog. She had heard a woman screaming, heard yelping, and heard a pack of wild coyotes howling. She heard the woman scream, "you let him go". She wanted to warn us to be careful. Sure enough, three days later I was sitting at my table eating dinner, listening to the radio, and enjoying the vase of beautiful flowers when I noticed the dogs ears perk up. I then realized that the howling I was hearing was actually not part of the music on the radio. I turned off the radio to hear a pack of wild coyotes right outside my patio howling and my dog was now howling right along with them wanting to run with the pack. I finished my dinner and called my mom. I told my mom that I was officially scared. She said, "you are officially, what"? I said, "scared". She said, "scared, what are you scared of"? I said that I was scared to take my dog outside to go potty. She asked why and I told her about the coyotes. She said, "oh, a pack of wild coyotes can be very vicious". I finished the conversation and hung up. I started devising a plan as to how the dog could go potty before bed without getting eaten for dinner. We have survived the bobcats, the mad deer, and the bears. The bears like my neighbors outside garbage can and stay away from mine since I keep it empty until garbage day. Now we have to beware of the wild pack of coyotes. I decided that the dog was going to have to hurry to go potty instead of lallygagging around. Maybe I forgot to tell him that. I put him on his leash. We went out the front door instead of the back door that leads to the patio. I stayed on the porch. He lifted his leg a couple of times but before he could do all of his business he saw something around the corner and started growling. I decided that was good enough and we quickly went back in the house. At 3:00 a.m., the dog decides that he has got to finish his business now and can't wait until morning. He wakes me up with his incessant crying. I put my coat and boots on, get his leash, and go out the front door again with the temperature at 3 degrees F. He lifts his leg a few times and then finally decides to do his business. I'm now settled back into bed. The lights are off. It is perfectly quiet. I'm trying to go back to sleep. The dog starts barking at something right outside the window by where he likes to sleep. I figure that the coyotes have come back. I'm glad that we missed them by about 20 minutes. I watched a short video clip on how to keep coyotes out of your neighborhood. It said to make sure that you don't leave out any food, dog food, or garbage. That is not going to work at my house, because there is a scamper load of bunny rabbits that like to hang out in my back yard. When the coyotes are hungry, they are going to stop by for an easy meal feasting on juicy rabbit. As long as they are not feasting on me or my dog, we should be fine.