Coyote Scat

Caedmon and I were wandering around our backyard yesterday, and we came across quite a large quantity of feces on the ground. Given Caedmon's age, it wasn't surprising that he wanted to investigate further; nor, given my interest in everything outdoors, was it surprising that I wanted to as well.

The feces looked like they might have come from a dog, and we've got a few large friendly beasts of that sort roaming our neighborhood. But we also see coyotes in our backyard periodically (I've never managed a good picture of one), and in fact, we had spotted one just two days ago. And it turns out that the feces in question appeared to have hair in them, which isn't normal for a domestic canine, nurtured on traditional dog food.

From Coyote Scat

From Coyote Scat

My suspicions were confirmed when, a few yards away, I spotted the (very) scattered remains of a small animal, probably a rabbit but perhaps a cat. Its fur was lying in patches over maybe a 15 square foot area.

From Coyote Scat

From Coyote Scat

Given the substantial quantity of feces, I have to imagine that one or more coyotes have been frequenting this site for some time.  I don't really mind coyotes except when they eat our cats (we've lost two over the years), but it's still a little odd that we've apparently got one holed up in our backyard.

Needless to say, Caedmon was fascinated by all of this, and even managed to step repeatedly into the feces in question, smearing them all over his shoe. Lovely.

From Caedmon (17 Months)