By KELLY BOSTIAN Outdoors Writer on Nov 19, 2012, at 8:54 AM Updated on 11/19 at 8:54 AM
THE OUTDOORS
When I imagine what I might do if I were caught outdoors during a bad storm my mind tends to jump to ideas to shelter myself ...
Our bluebirds marked Mothers Day with the beginning of a new clutch of eggs.
Nest building began May 6 and egg number one ...
The nesting attempt summary is this: First egg, March 24; total eggs, three; first hatched April 11; total hatched, two; ...
My wife’s reaction was immediate at the sight, “Oh! No! Is that a little dog?”
Yes, a dachshund by the look of it, but all that was left was the brown furred skull to make the identification.
All the soft flesh was gone, lips, ears, lower jaw and tongue, all that remained was a spine, the top of the head and teeth.
“Coyote kill,” I said.
We found the carcass along a drainage ditch on an evening walk about 50 yards behind our house in Bixby, roughly 200 yards from Bixby High School. It was sad to see but not shocking. I regularly see coyotes behind the house and we hear them singing late and night and early in the morning at times. Coyotes eat small dogs.
Coyote tracks and droppings littered the two-track near the dachshund but those always are found in the area, what makes me think the dog was killed by coyotes is the striking resemblance to all photographs of sled dog kills I saw while in Alaska.
Wolves occasionally would learn that sled dog yards were full of “snacks on chains” as some of the mushers used to say. A head, a spine, a collar and a chain, that’s all that would be left.
It’s a gruesome way to start the week, I apologize for that, but as a longtime dog handler I know that most things that go “wrong” with dogs are usually what we call “handler error;” meaning it’s not the dog’s fault and it’s not the coyote’s fault.
Pets need to be kept at home in a kennel or other in a safe location.
A lot of folks will let their dogs out to “do their business” and give them a little unsupervised free-run time. Sometimes dogs slip away and wander. I know that just happens sometimes. Dogs will be dogs.
Owners just need to know a dog, especially a small dog, doesn’t have to wander far in the Tulsa area to reach a place from which it will never return.
Only active print or digital subscribers of the Tulsa World are allowed to post comments on stories posted to Tulsaworld.com. After you fill out the form below and click submit, your comment will be published instantly online along with your screen name.
By clicking "Submit" you are agreeing to our terms and conditions.
