Suburban pests, Part 2: Wandering Wile E.

In my post the other day, I stressed that dog food should never be left outdoors unattended, because it is guaranteed to attract the kind of rodents (mice and especially rats) that will proceed to penetrate your house.

Dog food also attracts, well, dogs! including the kind that are not domesticated, as this morning's story in GCDN attests: authorities had to shoot a coyote that had gotten itself cornered in League City back yard a couple of miles from here. 

I have no evidence that dog food was involved in that particular incident, but you can bet that no coyote would be motivated to penetrate deep into a dense suburban neighborhood for the purposes of a recreational sight-seeing tour.  Almost everything wild animals do is predicated on their food source and, right now with the drought, food is scarce, and dog food looks mighty attractive. 

Coyotes in suburban neighborhoods is nothing new, although it's rare to have to dispatch one inside someone's fenced yard.  They thrive all over greater Houston.   Before Section 9 was substantially complete, I saw coyote tracks all through this part of Centerpointe, as they foraged at night for tortillas and pizza crusts that the builders' tradesmen would dispose of indiscriminantly.  They are found in abundance even in deep urban areas such as Memorial Park. 

So please do not leave dog food unattended outside.  Nobody, including a coyote, really benefits from an authority having to discharge his 12-gauge shotgun inside their neighborhood.