Out where the wild things are

I love living in rural America.  I like to have space between our home and the neighbors’.  I like having nice neighbors too.  The sky at night is incredible and there’s room for all of my wife’s animals.  

The funny part lately has been the animals showing up that are not ours.  We’ve had a few pigs show up and a herd of goats who stop by DAILY lately.  I guess the latch keeping them in isn’t as hard to operate as their owner thinks.  My neighbors have deer stop by now and then but so far, no deer on our property. They tell me there have been bear sightings but we haven’t seen a bear yet.  

A while back, we were hearing coyotes off in the distance.  Now, “the distance” isn’t as distant as one would hope.  We don’t have a dog or I’d be concerned about them being out in the yard when the coyotes stop by.  I feel safe living out there but I wonder what happens when the “distant coyote” runs out of dogs and farm animals to attack and decides to take on the dorky new resident that doesn’t know any better.  

I know enough about pigs from growing up in a farming community to know they seem docile but I was told about a guy who thought he was safe and all they found was one of his boots.  (True story)  I’m not troubled by goats but when I’m walking out to let the horses loose after they’ve had dinner, I wonder what I’ll do when the coyotes show up at the same time.  Then what?  Pepper spray?  A stick?  Crap your pants? 

By the way, in real life, Coyotes don’t look like the playful character you’ve seen chasing the Roadrunner around for decades.  They look like the weird cousin of a mean German shepherd.  Can’t wait to meet one in the dark sometime soon.  That should be fun.