Coyote Sandwich

Decided I need to take the gun course and get me a gun. Last week a pack of coyotes wanted to eat my dog. If i had a gun, I would have for sure shot it off. Not to kill them so much but to scare them away. I had just got off of work and came home to let the dog out. It was dark outside. Remember that it is dark at 5 pm right now. I came the house and turned on my computer to check my emails. Of course, being addicted to the internet media, I had to go on facebook, and before you know it, a half hour has gone by. Suddenly, I heard eerie, wierd sounds coming from outside. I jumped up thinking oh my god, my dog had been hurt. So I ran outside and there is my dog sitting staring at the fence. There were these blood-curdling yips and howls. Coyotes. Right on the other side of my back fence. And there is my dog sitting, with his ears cocked, just looking at them. They were pretty friggin close, let me tell you. They were barking and howling and carrying on trying to get him to go under the fence to go play...................... right? Well, the coyotes would be having fun eating him. My dog Mukwa goes under that fence all the time to chase the cows, much to my dismay and my neighbours (who owns the cows). Anyway, there he was just sitting there looking at the coyotes. So I try to get him to come in the house and he takes off around the front of the house. After all, he has been sitting in the house all day and that is boring. "Mukwa, MUKWA!", I call him again and again. And now I am yelling at the friggin coyotes to get lost. I scream bloody murder at them. I am howling back at them, trying to speak their own language. But they don't care, the brazen bullies. Gotta think fast.

I trick Mukwa by saying, "Wanna go for a car ride??" And I get him to jump right in the car. Ok, he is safe for the time being. I continued yelling at the coyotes but they were not stopping. Bold indeed. I was pretty freaked out. I am thinking that next week, I am moving my horses to the back yard. Yikes. But horses are a little too big for a coyote sandwich. I came in the house and they continued yipping trying to convince Mukwa to get out of that car for another 15 minutes. Then I heard their howling and yipping get fainter and fainter as they wandered off, realizing that their "play buddy" was not coming out to play. Off to look for another target. I happened to be going to town that night anyway so I wasn't really lying to Mukwa. I think he was happy to have an out and not look foolish being dragged into the house in front of those wild ones. Gotta maintain your dignity. Oh boy, this country living sometimes. Yes, maybe a gun licence is a good thing out here.

Canada Geese

Well, the city girl got hit again today. As I sat looking out my kitchen window today, I heard shots. Fear runs through my body. Where is my dog??? Is he chasing cows again? But no, it was geese hunters. I see four of them in camouflage outfits carrying guns and firing on Canada geese. I am appalled. “That is illegal” , so I thought. I immediately call my friend who works for the government. By this time, these hunters have brought a four wheeler onto the field with a huge covered, camoflagey trailer and they are loading up garbage bags full of geese. Oh my god! I have binoculars out. I have my camera out. I am taking photos. My friend tells me to call MNR, or the police, or the mayor who leases that land. I tell her that I cannot believe that the live geese are just standing there watching all their dead buddies get bagged up.

She says, Yes, well, they just don’t know what to do. Now, you must know she is a government, social worker so this kind of victim stuff must go on in the world of work that she lives in. Not a happy place.

I quickly hang up from her and choose to call my neighbour , the mayor.

“There are hunters killing geese in the field beside me” I screech into the phone.

Yes, I know” she says calmly.

“Isn’t that illegal?”

No” she says.

Oh. “ I say sadly. “Well how many are they allowed to get??? They are loading up garbage bags full of them!!”

Well, they are allowed quite a few, she says.

Do they have permission to be on the property?

Yes, they did ask me.

She explained that these guys come from all over to do these geese. They ask permission, they only get their limit. They travel far and have all kinds of equipment and they clean up well after they leave. They are very conscientious. I am running out of things to complain about. So we talk about the weather and the moving of the horses, and the winter water supply, and my friend who is running for political office, and life in general. Time passes, while I sadly watch these hunters load up.

Then I say, “You know, I cannot believe that those other geese just watch all this, and just sit there.”

“They are just decoys,” she says.

OMG. They are not just traumatized, stupid geese. They are decoys. OMG. Well, I laughed and laughed and so did the mayor. Yet another city girl moment. Arggghhhh. I still think the hunters are cruel but do admit that I wouldn’t mind tasting a nice cooked geese. I guess men are just born hunters. It must be a good way to get some of that old testosterone out.

Wolves in the Neighbourhood

Was serenaded last night by a pack of wolves. I was voraciously devouring the last chapter of “A Thousand White Women”, a fantastic book about May Dodd who was traded by the US government to a Cheyenne Chief for a horse. In my mind I was back in the time of the 1800’s living in a tipi when I hear this eerie, piercing howling right outside my front door. I threw the book down, jumped out of bed, and looked at my Samoyed dog that was looking back at me. He was calm and curious. I was petrified, feeling the hair on the back of my neck stand out. I was told that by my neighbour one night as we sat out by the bonfire shortly after moving in. We were listening to what we thought were wolves howling off in the distance when my neighbour drove in the driveway to see what was going on in his old house. No one had lived here for years. When we told him to listen to the howling of the wolves, he laughed. He said, that’s not wolves, that is MacKenzie’s sled dogs. Well, this silly old city girl had a good laugh and felt a little foolish. I was told that when I did hear wolves, it would make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I now know what he was

saying.

I have heard coyotes quite a bit out there in the country. They have a high pitched yipping sound. They scare me too but they seem to keep a little distance. I have heard them all around my house but in the fields surrounding. Of course, I keep my dog in when I hear that. But this howling was right in my yard!!

Recently, I saw a wolf run right across the road in front of me on my way into town. I had Mukwa, my Samoyed in the back. He was given that name by an Ojibway medicine man who gave me the dog. It means “Bear” because when he was born, he looked like a little polar bear. That day I stopped the car, and fervently was looking for my camera. Mukwa started talking. It wasn’t like a bark, and it wasn’t howling. He was talking to the wolf. The wolf stopped dead in his tracks and turned to look at my car, wondering what the hell was that!! And I am going crazy looking for my camera throwing things all over the car. Where the hell is the damned thing when I have a wolf sitting looking at me 20 feet away. Finally I find it and put the window down to get a good shot and Mukwa decides he is going to go play with that wolf and tries to jump out of the window. I was glad I have power window and was able to get it up quick enough to stop him. Not sure if the wolf would eat him or just check him out but not willing to take that chance. No, not a play day today. And no photos.

So here we are at midnight with wolves visiting and Mukwa wants to go outside to play. No way Mukwa. So I turn on the front outside light, open the door, but cannot see any wildlife outside. I step onto the deck and my heart is beating very loudly in my chest. No full moon, just wolves howling around my garage somewhere. Pretty darned close, let me tell you. I am exhilarated. Wow, you don’t get this in the city. So I started howling back. They stopped right away. So I jumped back into the house with Mukwa looking longingly at me. But not barking and not talking. In fact, he has never talked again like he did in the car that day. I keep trying to get him to talk. I ply him with treats, “Come on Mukwa talk, speak.” and he just looks at me with the big beautiful black eyes, and I give him the treat. I am a real pushover for those eyes. But what about protecting me, barking or something. Nope, nothing. He barks at some humans. They are probably more menacing than the wolves I suppose.

And that was it, no howling for the moment. I went back to my book. They Cheyennes are bucking down for the winter. A half hour later the wolves were back, in the back yard. I have no light out the back yard. I am feeling a little braver after I scared them off with my howling last time. Still no sound from my trustworthy guard dog. I opened the back door, and gasped as I realized exactly how friggin close they were. What did they want? Did I leave garbage outside? Were they letting me know they were pissed off at the hunters down the road? My neighbour has about 30 people over for the weekend and they have gone past my place all day with their 4 wheelers. Last night I heard them shooting some Canada geese. Of course that is illegal and I am tempted to call my other neighbour who is mayor of our township but she is good friends of that guy’s mother and out here in the country, you sometimes keep your mouth shut. Like my dog I guess. So I didn’t dare step foot out into the back yard with the wolves so close. I wanted to yell, shoe, shoe but instead I started howling again with the intention of “Get the hell of my property. You scare the shit out of me. “ And they got it. They stopped. Thank God. I shut the door, took some deep breaths, had a glass of water, and climbed back into bed. I opened the book again, thankful that I had a few pages left to distract me before sleep. Of course, I was wondering how long these episodes of howling may go on for. I finished the book in 5 minutes, always a sad thing when you have enjoyed a good book, and closed the light. I listened intensely for any noise outside. Called Mukwa to come sleep beside me. He came into my room, gave me a lick on the hand, and went back to where he usually sleeps in the guest room. At least he was close. I feel asleep with a big smile on my face feeling so close the nature and the mystery of life. I slept like a log, if logs ever sleep, and woke up again with a smile on my face, put the coffee on, and wrote this blog. Life is good.