It is a dangerous myth that having your pet beside you protects it from coyotes! My Gig Harbor neighbor was gardening with her cat beside her when a coyote grabbed her cat and ran away.
One Vancouver neighbor was leash walking his two dogs when a coyote grabbed the smaller one and ran
off. My Seattle friend’s two cats disappeared when a coyote moved into her neighborhood. She learned that none of her neighbors knew that a predator was stalking pets and 20 cats and two small dogs were missing.
Then there is Denise’s horrific experience at a paw-pular park.
“I turned off the engine and heard screaming,” said Denise. “I left my dogs in the car and ran towards the screams. A non-English speaking woman
was clutching her leashed dog to her chest, as a coyote held fast to her dog’s hind quarters.
I grabbed the coyote by the scruff of the neck, wound up my fist and round-house punched his jaw. I heard a popping noise and he released his grip on the poor dog. I shoved the woman back, grabbed the stunned coyote by its scruff and rear end, and tossed it into the bushes. All the while yelling like a banshee with my arms wildly swinging.
I had
once heard what to do, but never in a hundred years thought that I would have to employ the technique. I took the distraught woman to my car and we used my ‘pet first aid kit’ on her dog. I could not understand a word of what she said, but the look on her face and gestures said it all.”
Denise is a bone-a-fide dog-hero, but what she did in the heat of the moment is not recommended.
Besides coyotes, pet parents also fear birds of prey.
These birds are capable of picking up and flying away with squirrels, rabbits, chickens and small pets! One friend watched an owl fly off with his small cat. Armed with this information, when Miss Wings, my five pound cat, was outside I kept a watchful eye out for hawks.
When San Diego residents Paul and Pamela Mott’s beloved dog, Buffy, was stolen from beside them by a coyote, they were determined to purr-vent the nightmare from happening to others.
So they invented an answered to our prayers to protect pets from preying animals.
Paul designed a cat/dog armored vest that withstands a life-threatening attack. The DuPont Kevlar fabric is teeth stab resistant. The measured for a purr-fect fit vests are comfortable, light weight, water resistant, easy snap-on and have two rows of 1" spikes running down them like sharp skunk strips. Spikes also circle the neck collar, and running
down the middle of the vest are 8" stiff broom-like plastic bristles for poking predator’s eyes.
“Our police department tested the vest with an attack K9 and it passed with flying colors. To date thousands of dogs and a cats wearing our vests pur-oved that it is 100% effective against coyotes, aggressive dogs and birds of prey attacks with no reported injuries,” said Pamela. “The vests are endorsed by Veterinarians world-wide. If we can help save one life, we
have made a difference.”
Jamie in California writes, “One night, I considered not putting Lola’s vest on thinking we would be quick. Thank goodness I put her in it because minutes later, two coyotes quietly approached us and one was less than a foot from Lola!
My stomping and yelling scared them away, but I can still picture that bewildered coyote’s eyes as he contemplated attacking the weird creature covered in spikes and plastic
whiskers. I am 100% sure that if Lola was not wearing her vest, she would have been gone.”
