Balls... I haz them.

Now Brains, on the other hand, I may need a little help with.

This is Pete:

I don't normally name Coyotes that I come in contact with, but I spent so much time with this one last week that I thought it appropriate to give him a handle. Pete had been cruising a neighborhood looking for targets of opportunity - as coyotes are prone to do. He was jumping over short chain link fences, going from backyard to backyard looking for garbage, pet food, small dogs and cats.... pretty much anything that gave a positive calorie return on the investment of effort.

As you can imagine, this behavior was causing the residents more than a little concern. Which is a polite way of saying it sent them into bug-shit hysterics.

He was startled by one lady in particular, and had taken refuge under the 10' x 30' deck in the backyard of an unoccupied home when I found him. This presented tactical problem for me. I couldn't just leave him where he was, 'cuz the neighborhood was so whigged out by his presence. I also couldn't get to him with any of my regular "tools" since he was so far back under the deck. He had about 50' of area where he could exit the deck - which was a lot of area to try and cover as far as setting up to catch him was concerned.

I called for assistance from my partner, Cwn, and we worked on him for about an hour. The general game plan was to get him to exit the deck in a specific spot where one of us would be waiting with a net or catchpole to snag him. As with many of the best laid plans, however .... this one went tango unicorn despite our best efforts.

Pete eventually dashed out of an unprotected end of the deck and made a break for the nearest section of fence. This turned out to be the only 6 foot high wooden portion of the fence, where the gate was. He probably could have jumped the fence, but he made a tactical error and tried to wiggle under the gate instead. By the time I reached him, he was already halfway out of the yard, with just his rear legs and tail still visible. Everything happened really quickly, and I instinctively grabbed his tail with my hands to stop his escape.

Yeah.

Fortunately, my partner also has a considerable set of cajones, and he was right behind me while I wrestled with the coyote. He was able to help me net him when I dragged the much displeased beastie back into the yard, before Pete had the opportunity to express his displeasure by eating my face.

Here he is on my truck:

All in all, it turned out well - though I don't recommend this method of apprehending coyotes or any other wild animal. I was pretty confident in my ability to anticipate his moves and avoid being bitten - however, this is really crazy to do if you aren't used to such things.

Animal Control is not for the faint of heart.

Here's a very short video of me releasing him from the truck later that day in an unpopulated area. Sorry for the poor quality of the vid. I was shooting with my regular digital still camera: