To all you coyote naysayer’s out there, it seems that the ole "residential nylon leash walking is much safer than extendable leash walking in a ravine" axiom has been disproved today. Why? Because on a nice suburban walk around our nice residential neigbourhood with nothing but concrete sidewalks, single family houses and manicured lawns, my dog was attacked.…

There's a wonderful off-leash ravine hiking trail about a 10 minute drive from my house. The last two times we were there, we spotted Coyotes. The first time I saw one, he was quite a ways in the distance, just milling about minding his own business. The second time, we were nearing the end of our walk and he (or she) was watching myself and Casey quite intently from about 15 feet away up a little side path from…

Let me preface the below statement/question with the following: we have a long-standing tradition of cat-hating among the women in my family. My mother hates cats, my grandmother hates cats, my great-grandmother hated cats. In fact, my grandmother fondly tells a story of her mother (my great-grandmother) who, upon finding a cat in her (farm) kitchen who had decided to partake itself of a recently cooked chicken, picked it up,…