Close Encounters of the Unpleasant Kind

They say cats have nine lives but I hope dogs do, too, 'cause I think Lucy has used up a couple of hers. There was that day when she crossed 6 lanes of morning traffic twice on Rt. 195 without a scratch. Don't ask, the story makes me a little sick to my stomach despite the happy ending. But her most recent adventure was last October when she got 'up close and personal' with what we are pretty sure was a coyote.

We have a couple acres of our property enclosed by an invisible fence; a fabulous invention that I highly recommend over tying a dog if you don't have a regular fence. Of course, the flaw in that is that it keeps our dogs IN but it does nothing to keep other animals OUT.

That evening, just at dark Lucy was in the yard barking at something in the woods.....barking barking barking. I called to her to come in but she kept barking so I finally just went inside. Within 3 minutes of going inside I heard her start to scream like a little girl. I ran out screaming her name into the dark yard, I can't see anything and now she's not making any noise and I can't see her! A couple minutes later she's on the deck, bleeding from both sides and she's pretty shaken up. And so am I.

She's short haired but we couldn't really tell what the cuts looked like. I was thinking maybe a fight with a cat. It was late, she was fine so we just stopped the bleeding and left her alone for the night....well, not alone, she had to be right beside one of us, she was so frightened.

The next day when the vet shaved the area around the two cuts, they were clearly puncture wounds from canine teeth!! Lucy had been in the mouth of a coyote and lived to tell.


Paul says I saved her when I ran out shrieking like a banshee. He figures the coyote decided it didn't want to deal with whatever was making THAT noise! Of course, we're lucky it didn't grab her throat or her head or the outcome might have been very different. So that night Lucy was Lucky and we learned a lesson.....no going out after dark alone. In this photo I think she's a little embarrassed.