Wednesday, November 03, 2010

So Far

So far there have not been any rats under my sink. This is good. It means that they're not regular visitors - or there is just one and it has only three legs.

I have a question: Should I be afraid of walking my dog late at night? I'm not worried about crime and I carry a light to be seen. I'm wondering if I should be worried about nocturnal critters. I took my dog for a walk this morning and I was on the lookout for mountain lions the whole time and even turned around early because I was getting too far in to the trail. There have been several sightings around here and it kind of freaks me out.

Back to my novel...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mountain Lions and Bobcats for the most part are nocturnal hunters.

Bobcats you have nothing to worry about as you can drop kick them and they are docile towards humans. Leave them alone and they will leave you alone.

Mountain Lions on the other hand are dangerous and big. Though most of the horrific Mountain Lion attacks you hear about are of the LONE hiker or runner who is stalked (during daylight) and ultimately attacked as prey. Since these attacks are during daylight usually the animal is starving or ill - because the norm for them is to hunt at night. Walking a dog at night I think would be the safest as Mountain Lions wouldn't want to take on two targets at once.

Coyotes are active day and night. Coyotes are opportunity hunters - birds, ground squirrels, etc. As long as your dog isn't one of those ankle-biters (small) and by itself (an easy target for a coyote), the coyote will go after an easier meal.

So to make a short answer even longer - you have nothing to fear walking your dog at night.

ckh said...

I have a good sized dog (90-pounds!) And it sounds like I wouldn't have to outrun anything - except my dog, who would make a nice meal or protect me, whichever suits the fancy of the predator. Right?