Urban Wildlife!

I recently did a Post on Ray’s reactions (lack of!) to two coyotes (link below):

https://meandray.com/?s=coyote

It reminded me of his nonchalant behavior (just after he came to live with us) when confronted with two large oncoming and leashed German Shepherds. At that time, he had his nose to the ground and appeared to be so  totally pre-occupied that he did not even know that they existed. One of our shelter trainers explained that he would have known exactly where  they were, but was being very careful to avoid doing anything that could  be considered confrontational. He was simply projecting an aura of “I am busy here and no threat to you guys.”

His reaction to the coyotes was a little different in that he just kept on with his walk and, like the two Shepherds, he showed no signs that he had seen them. Coyotes are unlikely to be aggressive to a dog accompanied by two humans, and even his size could well be a deterrent (unless they are with a pack), and so perhaps Ray’s earlier life as a stray taught him that two coyotes are of no concern?

When I came back from Vancouver two weeks ago, Carol showed me the following pic taken while out walking with Ray:

Again, Ray apparently showed no signs that he had seen the fox but, with his sense of smell, I am sure that he knew it was there. It is really interesting because he will take off “like a rocket” to chase a cat, and to a lesser degree to chase a squirrel. He will usually be quite receptive to meeting approaching dogs but, for some reason, he totally ignores foxes and coyotes. Oh to be able to read his mind!

30 thoughts on “Urban Wildlife!”

  2. I noticed this with our dogs when a fox walked across the garden in the daytime. They go mad for squirrels and cats. They didn’t seem to see the fox, but surely smelt it??

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  6. Benjamin and I love the fox photo. The fox looks a bit wary, did he stay or run after the photo was taken? Ray seems to understand that one must choose his battles. Very wise! Thank-you!

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  11. Interesting, that Ray is behaving in such a way to both dogs and coyotes.

    My dog Odin was raised by our two old cats, so the only cat hunting, he practices, is to keep other cats away from our garden and house. While he was not so old, he saw other younger cats visit our garden and attacked our cats. I think, he did learn by that.

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