Posted on 02/26/2021 3:22:45 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT
Are those the Scientific Names for them or just the Street Cred Monikers ?
—”Look big, look strong, and a 44 magnum never hurts.”
We were overrun with coyotes a few winters back.
Every night I take the dogs out for a mile or two, and we were seeing MANY of them, occasionally two and three at a time.
One evening the dogs spot something I cannot see, they will lock in on anything, skunks, coons, rabbits...
Oh crap! It is two coyotes heading our way like they own the street!
We stop, usually, the coyotes will change direction when they see us, not this night.
They ran up to approximately fifty feet and STOPED!
NOT GOOD, I do not want to ‘backup’.
My two Australian Shepherds, 47 and 60 pounds, usually ignore coyotes, and sometimes it appeared to me they would like to run with them?
Both on a ‘Y’ leash, not making a sound or moving, they do not seem afraid, like with a nearby firecracker.
When were are out on the run, it is like two dogs one brain.
One will hear something on her side and then both are focusing on it.
The coyotes start slowly moving in our direction.
I shout; nothing.
I start doing jumping-jacks and shouting, the dogs are kind of twitching.
The dogs are now pulling on the leash and heads lowered.
The coyotes are about twenty feet.
The leash is always on a belt in case I slip on the ice or something.
The coyotes start tacking away slowly and are gone.
This is suburban DuPage county, the houses are not on a grid or any pattern.
At this location, there is a large ranch-style home immediately down range (close and many windows, frame construction a .22 could penetrate the exterior when not hitting a stud).
I am carrying a Colt.25 ACP, but only planning on using it as a noisemaker.
And being a young septuagenarian, my RT (Reaction Time) can easily be measured on a kitchen clock.
.44 magnum, heavy, loud, expensive, and depending on the load
may cause night blindness from the flash.
Most likely the cops will come by and if you are still out, will confiscate your piece, never to be seen again.
I guess you’d call them traditional ‘wilderness cred’ monikers for legendary beasties.
(There are actual academic scientists who have studied Sasquatch, though...Jeffrey Meldrum and Grover Krantz, for example :-)
apparently barack obama has been studying sasquatch for years...
Or MothMan!
Not to my goats!
I’d give more credence to the Thunderbird as a mythic representation or symbol which attempts to explain something:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbird_(mythology)
Mothman seems to be a modern psychological product without much meaning at all except an expression of fear; lots of nocturnal predators have reflective eyes that show red in the night - those young people in WV probably saw a Great Horned Owl. But it’s a fascinating fireside tale, especially as told by John Keel (taken with a big lump of salt):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman
Thunderbird is TRUE!
I see why it's named Great!
Freeper knee jerk response: Kill it and all wolves and bears too. We don’t want one of our $30 dollar sheep getting eaten.
Plus now I am scared when I walk in the woods; like a little girl...
What local beast?
Any thing specific?
I think we have coyotes but they are almost never seen.
Now imagine how heightened emotional excitation - or post-experience imagination - can interfere with your perception of what is/was ‘really’ there...
I’m sure it is...on some level.
I hear ya!
About 10 years ago some exotic animal got loose from a private owner who lived about 30 miles south of me.
Every night, when I’d go to put the goats up for the evening, I’d see a danged tiger or bear or wolf hiding behind every tree as I walked 150 feet to the barn!
Even after the critter was nabbed I still got the heebie-jeebies for months after that!
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