I need to stop walking in the dark!
 

Bear and I leave the house every morning before 6 am because it's the only time I can give him a good walk before I leave for work.

This morning we get to the other side of our house and there's a culvert that's meant to hold run off water, but it is overgrown and lots of critters hide in there. Bear freezes and is on high alert. I froze and listen, I could hear rustling in the bushes below and then Bear lets out a deep bark.

I hurry him along and shine my flashlight in the culvert but couldn't see anything. A little further up I'm still shining my flashlight and I see two pairs of eyes, they're coyotes. I normally don't worry when I see one, but I don't like seeing two. The entire walk (we're surrounded by open space) Bear keeps looking behind him. I'm worried that they're trailing us.

Now it's towards the end of our walk and we're on the last stretch of open space trail and I see more eyes coming towards us, but this time it's much taller. I shine my flashlight and it's a four point buck several yards ahead. Thankfully he decided to go the other way.

I know living in the foothills we see all kinds of animals, but I think I'd like to not see anymore for a while, especially after the last Bear encounter. :)

EEEK ... yeah, one of the reasons I'm glad I live in suburbia ... don't run into much wildlife on my 5 am jaunts!

Glad you're ok ...

Sounds like an episode out of animal planet, thanks for sharing it with us.

I totally hear you, I am also up and out at the crack of dawn. I've been waiting longer to go out but then I start running late for work. I don't have bears or coyote's but since it is hunting season I have to be aware of that. Over the years I've heard of the lone jogger or something getting attached by a pyscho or such, glad I always have a dog or 3 with me. I've just started heading back into the trails so I don't have to worry about a car or truck hitting us.
What about a loud sound to scare off anything out there?

Kiya, as soon as I saw the coyotes I started stomping my feet and they couldn't miss Bear's threatning bark. They pretty much took off. I wasn't really all that worried, but it did bother me that Bear kept looking over his shoulder.

What I really find interesting is that he barked at the coyotes (or the sound and smell of them) but when we encountered the buck and previously the bear, he did not bark but his hackles did go up.

I'm wondering what his reasonings are for being discriminite in whether he will bark or not. I just find it very curious.

I've also wondered why Joey barks at some things/people, but not others.

We walk in the dark too as I leave for work at 6:30 AM. The worst we deal with is cats and lose dogs.

I live in the country and now that the sun is only out for 2 hours a day my nightly runs are in the dark. We do have coyotes around here but I think my imagination is the worst thing I have to deal with. Oh and the cars that go 90 mph down the back country roads.

I think the buck would have scared me more. They are known to attack. Can you carry bear spray or something with you?

YIKES! We have a lot of coyotes in our area and we never had any problems with them at all. We used to only have an electric fence for our dogs. One night our dog came tearing back to the house with 2 coyotes on her tail. They were so close to getting her that she actually had coyote slobber on her hind end. This is the one and only time this happened and the only time we ever saw more than one at a time. It was scary that's for sure.

I know, I thought that about the buck, but I think Bear was a deterrant. Ironically I did get some Bear spray after our encounter with the Bear recently, but of course at 6:00 am, I forgot to bring it with me.:crazy: