West Seattle coyotes: Sad reminder from Seaview

We’ve been gathering coyote updates for a larger story for a while now (still in the works) – but this one, while not unique, is an important, sad, reminder. Out of the WSB inbox tonight from Teresa:

I never wanted to add to the ongoing concern about coyotes in our neighborhood, but unfortunately, our family’s tragedy has been a painful reason to do so. My parents, who live in the Seaview neighborhood along Southwest Juneau Street, lost one of their beloved cats to a coyote last night. My parents thought their cat was in, but they did not see her personally, and now she’s gone. Their neighborhood is scarcely wooded, but it’s become all too obvious lately that that is no longer a deterrent for urban wildlife. It also seems there is at least one coyote frequenting this corridor, based on what you reported throughout July.

I know this comes up every few weeks or so, but please remind your readers, again, that small outdoor pets are highly susceptible. Owners should be particularly diligent about bringing them in at night. That certainty far outweighs the alternative.

Now, the link we’ve shared many, many times before – advice on coexisting with coyotes, both for you and your pets’ benefit, and theirs. And also note that other wildlife can clash with pets too – we’ve heard about bigger, bolder raccoons lately – here’s information about them.

30 Replies to "West Seattle coyotes: Sad reminder from Seaview"

  • Seaview September 6, 2010 (9:32 pm)

    Juneau and which cross street?

  • justsayn September 6, 2010 (9:34 pm)

    Saw a coyote at around 3am the other morning, running down the middle of our street (38th SW and Dakota). We keep our cat in at night and that is why. We also have some pretty big masked critters around here too…they are also known to inflict mortal injury to cats. So sad to see all the missing cat posters this summer… I also feel badly for the coyotes, but… what do you do? Sorry for your parents’ loss of a beloved pet.

  • Silly Goose September 6, 2010 (9:36 pm)

    I too live in the Seaview neighborhood and this lone coyote has made off with two cats of my neighbors as well. He is a young coyote and is very comfortable walking all thru front yards, front porches, jumps over small fences etc, before heading back into the green belt at the end of 45th Ave SW. I watched him one night around 3:15 in the morning for quite sometime and was shocked at his level of comfort with my presence. You can hear him calling for the other coyotes early in the morning around 4pm in the green belt and they all start answering an eerie sound for the suburbs.

  • grr September 6, 2010 (10:28 pm)

    sigh..It always saddens me to hear about this, both from the coyote’s pov of needing to eat and survive in an urban environment, and the pov of losing a beloved pet. Yet…I still don’t understand why on earth people let their companion animals roam free…probably never will understand it. I hate seeing ‘lost kitty’ flyers for this exact reason :(

  • Jeff September 6, 2010 (10:30 pm)

    I think we lost our cat last Saturday night. 41st and Brandon.

  • delilah September 6, 2010 (10:46 pm)

    Keep cats and small dogs in during early morning hours as well. I run early in the morning and see coyotes often near Jacobson and Schmitz park.

  • smile September 6, 2010 (11:07 pm)

    I agree with grr; I used to think it was cruel not to let my cats outside where they could run, climb trees, etc. But after years of vet bills from various happenings, scooping my dead cat off the street and having a forever lost pet I took the big turn to leaving them inside all of the time.
    In 10 years I have only taken my cats to the vet twice and they never go missing. It’s only fair.

  • coffee September 7, 2010 (7:08 am)

    And what about people who leave their dogs out all day in a fenced yard. I have 2 neighbors who do this and 1 of the dogs is a small dog and both yards have a fence that is less than 4 feet high…..

  • Mrs L September 7, 2010 (8:43 am)

    Yesterday around 7:30 pm saw a coyote off Brandon near the southern end of the West Seattle Golf Course. It’s the first coyote sighting for me since moving here 3 years ago but it’s not a surprise. The Longfellow Creek area would be perfect habitat for any critter.

  • MalcomX September 7, 2010 (9:51 am)

    Unfortunately, we lost our 8 year old Persian cat to a coyote two weeks ago near the 4400 block of Walker Street in North Admiral. I spoke with several people throughout the neighborhood who have lost cats to coyotes since the beginning of summer. For obvious reasons, people and coyotes can’t coexist.

  • nulu September 7, 2010 (10:03 am)

    After re-reading Teresa’s sad post and with my sincere condolences for her parents’ loss, I am at loss with the conclusion that a coyote was to blame.
    She said her parents “did not see her personally, and now she’s gone.”
    Did anyone personally see the coyote take the cat?
    And, is there a reason to exclude all of the other common reasons that cats don’t “come home”?

  • Kristina September 7, 2010 (10:32 am)

    Our family’s compromise for the indoor/outdoor cat thing is to have a cat with a cat door allowing him free entrance to the house at any time, but we lock him in at night. This way, he always has a place of refuge when he wants it (and protection from the elements, and access to food and water, etc.) but he is able to be outdoors and enjoy just being a cat. At night, he is tucked inside (usually sleeping on my foot!). It is not a perfect solution, but to me it seems a good balance.

  • Harpie September 7, 2010 (12:21 pm)

    To Nulu — Yes; a neighbor saw what happened.

    By “gone” I meant dead. There was enough left of my parents’ cat to bury it, so they, at least, will have closure. And we feel very sorry for those who never do.

    Teresa

    PS — I greatly appreciate all that WSB has been doing to keep locals aware of coyotes in the area. It may seem like a small thing, far below a news site’s notice, but I and many others appreciate the warnings. Knowing that there are possibly several coyotes between the 45th Avenue gully (where I played as a tween) and Camp Long, who are growing bolder and less afraid of their human neighbors, definitely provides a higher level of alertness for many of us.

    • WSB September 7, 2010 (12:28 pm)

      Teresa – Thanks; every time one person tries to tell us “everyone knows about this, why waste space on it?” we hear from three more who say “Well, I didn’t think they were in our area, because there’s no greenbelt nearby” or even “We never heard about them before.” We try to make it very clear that we share these updates in the interest of informing, not by any means advocating that wildlife be removed/hunted/trapped/etc. Even indoor cats might get out sometime (though our two seem wholly unmotivated to even so much as approach the door)… We by the way are long overdue for a promised story about converting outdoor cats to indoor ones, for anyone interested in that – hopefully within a day or two. – TR

  • Laurie September 7, 2010 (12:34 pm)

    My son and I were driving up Admiral Way toward the viewpoint at 6:55pm last Wednesday (trying to be on time for soccer practice!) and we saw an adult + ‘teen’ sized coyote loping across the street from the greenbelt side to the neighborhood side.

    I’m so sorry for the ones who lost their pets. I hope you find another cat or dog to share your lives with, and if you keep them as indoor pets from the beginning they’ll never know what they’re missing outside. (Better for the songbird population, too.)

  • Greg September 7, 2010 (1:02 pm)

    I hope MalcomX stands alone with the position that people and coyotes cannot coexist. Coyotes are a vital part of our ecosystem and we have no choice but to coexist. The alternative is far worse than the current situation.

  • nulu September 7, 2010 (1:14 pm)

    Teresa,
    Thanks for the clarification and once again my condolences.

  • Brontosaurus September 7, 2010 (3:26 pm)

    I’d be very interested in a story about converting indoor/outdoor cats to indoor only. We have 4 cats. One is indoor (he has no sense of direction and absolutely no street smarts). The other 3 are indoor/outdoor (we’re the doormen as we obvjiously can’t have a cat flap). We let them outside because they love to explore, catch the occassional mouse or bird, climb trees and stalk squirrels. It’s wonderful to see the delight they get in being “wild animals.” Then they come home, steal the best spots on the bed (all four of them plus our dog).

    I let them out because I think they wilhager so much more enjoyment out of life, even if, unfortunately, their lives are shorter than indoor cats’.

    The coyote situation really concerns me though, and we are doing our best to keep them all in at night. I wish I could convert them into contented indoor cats.

  • Tony September 7, 2010 (3:49 pm)

    Every year there are more coyotes and they are braver. There is no check on their population, no predators, no human intervention, and an endless supply of small cats and dogs. Now they are appearing during the day, and are losing their fear of humans, as their population increases. Why do we have to get along with coyotes in the city? We don’t let mountain lions or bears live in our city parks. Those that think that coyotes won’t harm humans are not paying attention. How exactly are coyotes a ‘vital’ part of our urban ecosystem? Why would the alternative, (no coyotes) be ‘far worse’?

  • Silly Goose September 7, 2010 (9:26 pm)

    Tony actually the coyote population in what I have seen these past few years and my neighbors agree is they are disappearing. This lone coyote use to be part of a pack of 3 that ran for miles around West Seattle, and at night we would hear around 8 or 9 in the green belt. I had heard rumors that some citizens were throwing out posion and we have heard gun shots after they would be howling so this could be part of the reason there arent’s as many around.

    As for how can they be a vital part of our urban ecosystem, mainly because they eat lots and lots of rats and mice and keep the rodent population at a minimum. Just like the possums that come through eat slugs and snails, and the racoons also eat up to 3lbs of snails a night, amen to that.

    I have never heard of a coyote attacking a human and have more fear of the junkies on the corner than a coyote. As for them being braver I doubt that just that they are around all the time and are comfortable in this urban setting because they are city born coyotes and this is their home they don’t now any thing different regardless of how scary it is to us it is what they know.

  • WTF September 8, 2010 (9:14 am)

    As a pet owner, I am so sorry for your parents’ loss; can’t even imagine. As a homeowner, I wonder why cat-owners think it’s ok to let their cat roam around. I’ve never understood this. I don’t this it’s ok, for both respect of those around you and for the pet’s safety. It’s not ok for cats (anymore than a dog) to run around; cats have uesed my and my nieghbor’s yards as their littlebox with no one bending over to pick up after them. The missing cat posters in our ‘hood have sadly & steadily increased, but there IS a high level of accountability to managing domestic pets.

  • B-squared September 8, 2010 (9:18 am)

    Thanks Silly Goose. I would be devastated if anything happened to my (indoor only) cats, and feel badly for those whose cats are missing. yet nature (in all it’s forms) is wildly important to me. We have created many of the problems that we blame on “nature”, from missing cats to garbage on Alki (overflowing garbage cans that birds can access). In solving these problems, we need to gain an understanding and appreciation for a functioning ecosystem so that our “solutions” don’t cause new problems somewhere else.

    For my two cats, who have never been outside, there really isn’t a trick to being indoors. But i recently enclosed my tiny back porch with lattice and now let the cats out there. they seem to enjoy it, laying around in the sun. A cat run would be the next step if i could figure that out. indoor only keeps them from being little killing machines, and i have no interest in them killing off my yard birds.

  • Silly Goose September 8, 2010 (9:44 am)

    B-Squared, I use to have cat’s before they passed from old age at 21 and 19 but we had a kitty run for them made out of stainless steel duct tubing!! You can buy this at home Depot or dumpster dive behind a heating business. I did have a kitty door for them to go outside as I think it us healthy for all animals to be outside using their senses and their large muscles in the yard jumping, climbing etc. We got the collar activated door as the racoons would try and come in the kitty door at night and without the signal from the collar they never could get it opened.

  • B-squared September 8, 2010 (9:49 am)

    Thanks again, Silly Goose. The boys are now both 16 but still strangely agile even with their collection of geriatric ailments. i will look into duct tubing:)

  • grrrrrrrrrn September 8, 2010 (11:31 am)

    Why can’t we do something about the dang coyotes. They need to be trapped like they used to be. We did not have not had this problem until we voted against trapping. Why should we be prisoners to the dang. Coyotes……GRRRRRRR

  • Fred September 8, 2010 (11:48 pm)

    nulu – exactly. And what about all the small animals, especially birds, those cats are killing.

    People make choices, and need to live with them. In essence, they are creating this problem by providing the food coyotes need to exist.

    I feel sorry for the loss, but reject the blame on the coyotes

  • Fred September 8, 2010 (11:51 pm)

    grrrrrrrrrn – why should the responsible people be prisoners to the irresponsible? We have nature here that many want to preserve, and coyotes are part of nature.

    Want fewer coyotes, stop feeding them your pets or move to a more urban community.

  • Fred September 8, 2010 (11:53 pm)

    WTF – exactly, and let me add, the digging up of my garden, so they can do their dirty work.

  • Greg September 9, 2010 (5:10 pm)

    So my cat got killed by a car (seriously, it did). Do we conclude then that people and cars cannot coexist? Do we trap all the cars and set them free in the wild? I feel for the cat owners that have lost their cats to wildlife but wildlife in and around Seattle is one of the things that makes this place so special…..I don’t think Clevland has a coyote problem…just sayin’. BTW, Silly Goose, spot on, thank you.

  • Jenny DB September 10, 2010 (1:57 pm)

    Right on, Greg. If you don’t like it there is always Los Angeles. Some people in Seattle appreciate the wildlife. If i saw a coyote wandering down the road I would stop and appreciate that we live in a ‘city’ where we can still see coyotes, deer, raccoon, etc. Coyotes do not attack humans, and we need to be responsible with our pets if we want to keep them safe from coyotes, just as we would try to keep them safe from cars, aggressive dogs, etc.

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