OTUS THE HEAD CAT : Elusive pet-snatching coyote seen on busy Hillcrest street
Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Style/231760/
Note: Otus the Head Cat is in a Barack Obama test focus group this week. For your amusement, here is his column that ran Oct. 15, 2001.
The public is fi ckle. One minute all they can talk about are coyotes, the next minute it’s Osama bin Laden. Geez. Pick a topic and stick with it.
Hardly a week went by during the summer when there wasn’t a report about the cunning devil prowling about searching for soft flesh to sink his teeth into.
It’s hard to believe, but it has been almost seven years since the first reports surfaced about strange happenings in Little Rock neighborhoods near Murray Park and the Arkansas River.
Folks were initially skeptical; then family pets started disappearing around Hillcrest — just a wooded ravine from the wilds of Rebsamen Golf Course and Murray Park.
“They’re outstanding scavengers,” said Rocky Lynch, a state Game and Fish Commission wildlife biologist. “If a coyote’s natural food sources are scarce, they’ll probably pick up small cats and dogs.”
Although 247 small pets disappeared in Hillcrest that winter, most residents dismissed the possibility of coyotes within city limits. That was until a reliable, highly respected local pharmacist made her report.
“It had a very large yellow fluffy cat in its jaws,” Linda Goff said of the “oddly canine” beast, “and this thing was carrying the cat into the woods.”
Experts tell us coyotes have adapted well to urban environments. They may prefer to make their dens in fields or woods, but in harsh winter conditions, anyplace — such as a secluded river bank — will do.
Little Rock Zoo officials note that coyotes normally dine on small mammals such as rabbits and mice. They’ll chow down on food left in bowls for outdoor pets.
They will also partake of road kill and deer carcasses, which explains Owner’s pre-dawn sighting at Murray Park. Here is my account as printed in May 1996:
“It stood about 2 feet tall and was a good deal scruffier than those he had seen in Western movies. Lanky and angular, the griseous creature was nonchalantly strolling down the bicycle path straight toward Owner.
“ In the full glare of the headlights, the savage beast paused. Its dark salmon tongue lolled lazily over its cruel black-on-black lips. The ghostly canines flashed in the night like shivs.
“ The beast casually shifted its weight several times, sniffed the air, and skulked closer.
“ Then, only 12 feet in front of the car, the coyote pounced on its quarry. It was the pancaked remains of a squirrel that had failed to make it across the road.
“ Tossing the lifeless body into the air, the coyote grasped it in its viselike jaws. Owner could hear bones crunch as the creature trotted off into the darkness beyond the power lines.
“ A full minute later the coyote reappeared and loped across the road in the direction of Sherrill Heights. Owner shivered. He knows people who live up on Sherrill Road. They have small dogs and some of them have cats. There are even young children.
“ Owner prayed they had all been taken inside the night before. Especially the children.”
Coyote reports slacked off for several years. However, recent construction on the bicycle path along Rebsamen Park Road has disrupted the rabbit population. The coyotes began ranging up among the houses again last summer.
Hardly a week went by when there wasn’t some frantic report of a missing dog or cat or gerbil — even a baby emu. Murray’s picnic area was closed. Rebsamen golfers were allowed sidearms on the thickly wooded Short 9.
Fern the Wonder Dog, Rebsamen’s goose-chasing trashfetching resident border collie, refused to leave her pen near the clubhouse. She was traded in for a Rottweiler. Last week, a solitary brazen coyote was photographed stalking prey near the promenade on Kavanaugh Boulevard. It had come up through Allsopp Park — a dense, rugged tangle of undergrowth surrounding a field where small children often play oblivious to the glowing yellow eyes watching from the brush. And, thanks to Osama bin Laden, our attention is turned elsewhere in the world. Until next time, Kalaka reminds you to not let the coyote terror disrupt your normal life. Just be extra aware of your surroundings. Disclaimer: Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat’s award-winning column of
humorous fabrication appears every Saturday. E-mail: mstorey@arkansasonline. com