Predators in the mist.... -

Okay, maybe that’s an overly dramatic post title, but, the drama seen around here lately warrants some real attention.

A few weeks ago I woke to find goats tap dancing on our picnic table. I was slightly amused and very concerned that our pen was not going to hold up to the challenge of keeping goats in. After a few minutes of playing “ignore the woman who feeds us and make her look ridiculous until she carries us back home” the goats were back in the pen and the loose knots securely tied.

You can imagine my surprise when I look out into the field just a few hours later and see what I believe is my dairy goat way off in the distance. I was not going to be made a fool of again, no sir! Swift action was in order! I started to march toward her with fervor.

Mid march I realized that there are TWO brown animals in the distance. It takes a minute to process this information…I look back and see my goats standing in the pen. The fear of God in their eyes. Wait a minute, if the goats are in there then who, Whaaat is it I’m marching toward?

Holy Coyote! I’m frozen in my tracks. The evidence of my poor judgment (and vision) all too clear.

(I’ll skip the part where I try desperately to load the only gun I’ve ever handled. It’s basically one step up from a Daisy BB gun).

In the end, the coyotes ran into the woods and my goats looked slightly embarrassed. What matters is that I saved the day.

Fast forward a few weeks. I’m sleeping soundly and wake to hear squawking and carrying on from the chickens. I race downstairs to throw some scratch their way and get them to be quiet before every chicken hawk in the county knows their location.

I push through the screen door. Walked passed the cowering doberman…I was saying something about how dumb these chickens are to not realize the danger they are in when I looked up, with sleepy eyes, to see another coyote. This one was brazen. Not off in the distance, but right there on my porch!

I was afraid we had lost our Henrietta. I searched and searched and tried to remind myself that this was all part of country living.

Just as I was planning the candlelight vigil, Henrietta came out of the woods. Looking a little startled, but no worse for the wear. Every feather in place…this time.

Something had to change. I couldn’t continue to wake several times a night to go count heads.

After much research, I decided to get a Pyrenees/Anatolian work dog. We are headed to get her now, in fact. She will still be a pup and not able to do her guardian duties for a while, but we have a plan in place. A solid one as far as the research is concerned.