Coyote in the goat yard!
I have a handgun, but I now see why my hubby keeps bringing up our lack of shotguns. We just had a coyote in the goat pen. Luckily we have an LGD who was keeping it at bay, barking and staying between the coyote and her herd. My beagle Scooter (an inside dog) started barking just before 2:00 a.m., and of course I yelled at him to be quiet. Thank goodness he never listens. A minute later when he barked again, I got up to check. I was going to do what I usually do-put his radio fence collar back on and let him go bark it out with Kacha, our LGD. When I saw Kacha out the window, I knew something was very different about tonight's barking.
Ocassionally we get deer who wander through at night. Kacha sees eyes, and barks until she knows what it is. She usually does this at the fence line though. When I looked out, I saw her going crazy in front of the hoop house we built, where our doe and 1 week old baby are housed. Behind her were our buck and his wether companion. Kacha kept herself between the danger and her herd. I grabbed my gun and went out in my pajamas.
As soon as I was outside, I saw a coyote come out from the woods, skulking down toward Kacha and her goats. I did a head count to make sure all my animals were accounted for, and then opened fire. My little 380 was already locked and loaded, so I was ready to go. I shot once directly at the coyote, and then 2 more times into the woods where I thought it might have gone. (In all honesty the last 2 shots were more about my nerves than actually hitting anything.)
After about 5 more minutes of Kacha going to the far edges of the goat yard and then coming back, barking out into the woods, I decided it was safe enough for me to get to work. I have 7 goats right now: mama and baby were locked up, but the rest weren't. I have 3 younger/smaller goats housed together behind an electric netting fence. There is a small lockable structure in their paddock, but the doors always get blocked with hay and over time it becomes impossible to shut them. The first thing I did was dig the doors out, and lock the little ones up. The structure is a repurposed duck house-think of a dog house for a really big dog-so it's a little cramped with all 3 in there, but definitely better than the coyote's solution. (We are planning to build another structure in the Spring, similar in size to our hoop house.)
Our buck and his wether are in the bigger yard with Kacha, that has 5 strands of electric tap running around it. I've been leaving them out instead of locking them in the 10x10 dog kennel that has their sleeping shelter in it, mainly because up until tonight we haven't seen any signs of coyotes. I assumed that Kacha's barks in the middle of the night were keeping them away. Surely, I thought, there are easier dinners to procure than goats guarded by a large dog. Obviously not the case. The coyote came through (or most likely, over) the 5 strands of hot wire, and from the way it was acting, Kacha's presence was noted but not a deal breaker. I am afraid to think of what I would have found in the morning had Scooter not continued barking after I yelled at him to stop.
So everyone is locked up, safe and alive thanks to Kacha and my inside alarmdog. I tried looking for signs that a bullet actually hit the coyote when I shot, but it was just too dark. I'll try again after work tomorrow. I'm guessing that I didn't get her, based on how she acted after I shot.
I've been sitting in here typing this for about 30 minutes. I'm guessing that if the coyote was going to come back, she'd have done it after I came inside. Everyone is locked in and safe, and all is quiet. Maybe I can go back to bed now? Though I don't think I'll sleep anymore tonight.
