Princess 1, Coyote 0.

One of these days I'll learn to NOT let the voice in my heart overrule the voice in my head.

I've been keeping the chickens penned up in their secure chicken run because coyotes are so bad this year. I've even been keeping the cats indoors lately for the exact same reason. At this point in time, both the cats and chickens are depressed and hate me as they miss their freedom to roam, and I'm certainly aware of that and do feel badly for them. I know they love to roam and play.

Today, the chickens seemed especially sad and mournful and I felt sorry for them because they have been penned up for a few weeks now, so around 9 a.m. I let them out to free range. I even knew that there was a chance a coyote would materialize out of nowhere if I did this, and I did it anyway. (I did not let the cats out precisely because I was fairly sure a coyote might pop up.) Our little dog, Princess, was not happy. She knows this sort of thing tends to not end well, especially in winter. So, she parked herself on top of the back of Tim's recliner and obsessively watched the chickens roam around the yard from her nice, warm, cushy location indoors, where she has a wide view through the 4 windows that make up the big bay window in that room.

A few minutes ago, Princess put out the coyote alert bark, which is different from any other bark or growling sound that she makes. When she barks like that, let there be no doubt---there's always a coyote or bobcat within her range of vision. Her brother, Ace, joined in a few seconds later. I immediately ran out the front door onto the porch just in time to chase away a healthy, fat, lurking coyote who was on the edge of the woodland near the garden---far enough away that I'm surprised the dogs saw him through the trees, and far enough away that no chickens were (yet) at imminent risk, though I think if the coyote had been unimpeded for another 30 seconds, it would have been able to get close enough to grab a chicken. I barely saw the coyote myself because it still was in the woods, and hadn't come out into the open, and am pretty sure if this had happened while the plants were green and leafy, I probably couldn't have seen it. Of course, the coyote turned and ran off when I came out the front door and started yelling. I'd rather chase them off than shoot them if possible because they do eat lots of field mice, voles, rats and other rodent type animals too. It is not our goal to wipe out all the wildlife that shares our land, but rather just to keep them away from our animals.

So, tomorrow and thereafter, no matter how sad and mournful the poultry manage to look, no matter how pitiful and pathetic they act, no matter how much they hang their heads and act like being locked up is killing them, they aren't going to free-range. I hope they enjoy being out today because we aren't going to repeat this experiment in free ranging again any time soon. At least one of the chickens likely owes its life to Princess (and Ace) for alerting us all to the coyote today.

As a reward, Princess and Ace each received half a hot dog, so they are gleefully perched on the back of both recliners now, obsessively guarding their chickens from a distance and hoping to earn another treat. (The next treat will be a Milk Bone, not another hot dog, and I hope they aren't too disappointed in that.)

Every time I ignore the rational voice in my head that says "keep the chickens put up", a coyote appears out of nowhere and makes me regret it. Thankfully, today the good dogs won this round for the chickens and for me.

Dawn