You Will Be Okay

Seldom a dull moment around here.

I don't know that I will ever actually feel safe here again.  Not since one or more coyotes came over my dog pen fence Friday night to dig up Cameron's body and carry it away before the neighbor dogs scared it/them off.  It amazes me to learn they can easily jump or scale a 6 or 8 foot fence.  All those stories I have read about them jumping a fence to grab a cat or small dog -  I assumed the fences to be about 4 feet tall. 

First, a couple of years ago, all the feral cats along our walk route disappeared.  Last year all the squirrels disappeared.  They are repopulating now but not the cats. There was the coyote I sighted nearby last summer while walking Buddy and Sam.  And then a couple of reports from neighbors of coyote sightings right here. The neighbors and I have no doubt it was a coyote(s).  But why the bottom of the fence was torn loose and Cameron dragged through such a small opening is a mystery.

It's a relief I couldn't dig more than an inch in the clay outside the pen or Cameron would have been gone.  I re-buried him Saturday.  It was a long hard, brutally painful day.  Between my back and the latest knee injuries from the fall in February, it was all I could do to use a shovel.  NEVER, EVER try to dig in clay unless you are a big, strong, young dude, which I am not!

Saturday night was quiet.  It was hours before I could crawl out of bed Sunday.  Last night I slept hard for a while and got up before 4 a.m.   There was no barking but it sounded like the neighbor dogs were trying to get out of their yard again.  I opened the door to hear better and Marcus hit the screen to run out barking.

He's funny.  He has a habit of getting so excited, he runs bravely to the fence barking madly, turns his head, finds he's alone, turns tail and runs back toward the house.  As usual, Sam and Merci charged through the door to his rescue and the three ran to the back fence and barked. I got a squirt bottle (well, it's better than no weapon at all) and followed in the slushy mud.  There was a face peering at me from inside the wooden fence the neighbor had just boarded over Saturday. 

There was nothing I could do at 4 in the morning, but I was so worried I stood at the door watching for well over an hour, then sat on a stool.  The noise continued and there was a lot of whining between breaks.  No barking, so I had slept through whatever had happened to initiate this.  Before 6, it got quiet.  I felt terrible.  The dogs had escaped and I couldn't even let the neighbor know until after daylight.

When I tried to go back to bed, I discovered Buddy had been left gated in the bedroom so he had pulled back the covers to make himself comfortable and had vomited.   There is a pad under the sheet for such an emergency but I had to dig up another sheet and remake the bed.  Sleep was a long time coming and thankfully the phone rang at 9.

I would be devastated if my dogs got loose, so I dressed and went next door.  There was such relief as I checked their back fence.  The dogs had not made it out after all!  But the folks do know the fence needs repair again.  She said they will try to put up some type of camera back there to see what is going on in that area at night. 

The funny part is that after I fed the animals and was about to fix my own breakfast, the dogs started carrying on.  I found a city worker on the outside of the fence reading the meter.  He pointed to Marcus and said, "What is he?  He's beautiful."

I guess it's time to get Marcus a bigger bowl.  I don't think his nose is going to fit in it for the swelled head he has now. 

I really enjoy a singer called Kaoma.  He often makes a capella singing videos, but this one has music.  It seems an appropriate time to receive a YouTube notification about his song titled "You'll Be Okay".  I sure hope so! (One guy, four parts.)


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