Close Call!
 

Wow, I just let dogs out back and they tear off the porch. In day time that usually means cat, bird or squirrel. At night we have a ton of possums an occasional raccoon or worse skunk. I leave work at 4:30 am so I always go out with flood light and scan yard before letting dogs out. Tonight though since it was still light out I opened door and a coyote took off running. Luckily I had saw horses out and it leaped onto that and over the 6 foot fence.

I had gate opened because I had power washed the drive way and put car in back. I live in a highly populated neighborhood with no park areas around. In 30 years here I have seen only one deer on my street and this coyote.

Glad he jumped the fence. I wouldn't have looked forward to breaking up a fight with 2 Boxers and a wild dog. We have so many feral cats this year is probably why.

I'm in one of the many residential suburbs of St. Louis that have become overrun with deer, so they're always here. We don't see coyote as often, but they certainly pop-up in yards from time to time. Luckily, they're always shy and alone. The way St. Louis has flooded in recent years, all kinds of creatures wander into yards that you don't expect see, like foxes, skunks, opossums, raccoons, etc. The foxes have become quite tame. I always worry about rabies. The dogs are vaccinated, but the people aren't.

Noelle

We have a lot of coyote, deer and fox in the city I live just not in my neighborhood. This year for some reason we are loaded with possum. They usually just play dead, even if dogs tear them up. The day they put fence posts in my yard flooded. One played dead with it's head under water. They are about the dumbest creature around, lol.

When I lived in Wilmington (OH), near the college, my quiet little neighborhood was suddenly indundated with skunks. My dog killed (and subsequently got sprayed) by two inside my fenced backyard, and for a couple years I could actually smell the live ones through my windows as they went about their nocturnal activities like clockwork every night. It got to be a real smelly problem for residents and businesses alike.

Now south of ATL and opossums and fox still abound ... I have no problems with those ... they don't stink! I did come across one smart 'possum once in OH, though. My dog "killed" it inside the fence. late night. I put the carcass in two garbage bags and put it in a garbage can. The next day I went to move the garbage can to the front of the house. As soon as I tipped the can to push it, that "carcass" had apparently freed itself from the double bags and burst through the plastic lid of the garbage can like a rocket!

I just about soiled myself!

Which of these things was smarter than the other? :)

LOL, Laura. Yes I have put 3 "dead" possums by the tree lawn out front this year alone. My male Boxer was skunked 2 years ago. I smell them all the time but they avoid my yard for most part. I've had maybe 3 skunkings in last 30 years. Last winter was the huge fight with raccoon under back porch in minus 15 weather. Possums last 2 years have been nuts.

I now have back porch blocked off from large creatures. I need to find a way to block between metal part of gate and wood. Big enough for cats, possums and coons to get through. I am right now staring at a squirrel eating a tomato he stole from neighbors garden. Cheeky little turd.

my parents house is a 1908 Victorian (all original too) in downtown San Jose near Coyote Creek. There is a grapevine on a trellis next to the back steps that must have been planted when the house was built. Every year there are possums that raid the grapes and one year there were some rats that showed up. A few years ago (while I was still living there while saving for my own house) there was a hole that was dug leading under the foundation of the back steps. I kept filling it but it kept opening back up. My dad and I decided to investigate whether something was nesting under the back steps, so we went down into the cellar (full, finished basement) and poked our heads into the hole that joins the two spaces. Fortunately the animal was not home (I'll explain in a minute) but the dirt was all dug up and a total mess under there so we leveled the dirt back out and set a couple bricks over the hole. The next day the hole was back along with another hole on the other side.

I was getting frustrated so finally I decided to set a t-rex style rat trap to get the (assumed) rat that was digging the hole. I set it right in the path of the hole's entrance. This time I attached the trap to a stake with wire because the last time I trapped rats the traps would end up in odd places or disappear. A couple days went by with no luck. One night I happened to be sleeping in the back room on the futon. I woke up at about 2:30am and went to pee. For whatever reason I decided to use the bathroom on the back porch (it is a closed porch with a half screen/half solid outer door and a inner, heavy door). As soon as I opened the inner back door I could smell the strong odor of a skunk. I cautiously moved near the screen door and heard a lot of rustling where the trap had been set. I could not see it (not about to open that screen door) but I knew the critter that was digging the holes and was now caught in my trap was a skunk. I figured I would call animal control and let them deal with it in the morning. The next day the skunk had freed himself from the trap (thank god) and I filled the holes and stacked a couple layers of bricks over the areas where he was digging.
My dad and I are so glad the skunk was not under the porch when we went poking our noses in from the basement. Also glad it was not living in the basement either.

I bet you and he were very happy! Your family got lucky!

The first of the two times Chynna killed her skunks, she brought the carcass into the covered back porch (through the dog door) and left it in front of the back door, like a trophy, LOL. I'd worked late and could smell the stench even before I got out of my car in the driveway. Every room, from the basement up to the second floor reeked of skunk. I let her know how displeased I was by her trophy.

Now I laugh ... but back then I coulda killed the dog that killed the skunks :) I didn't.

I'm in FL, and the coyotes here are plentiful (and bold). I hear them every night when the train goes by, and at my parents' house they have actually started coming into the barn in the evenings.