Nights at the ranch are usually calm, especially since we brought in Princess and Bonita to protect the livestock after losing nine turkeys to a coyote attack last November. Princess and Bonita's job is to set boundaries on the ranch so local predators learn to avoid us. They work hard each night to provide a deterrent to predators searching for prey and last night was no exception.
John was awoken by unusually furious barking this morning. Not deep warning barks we've grown accustomed to, but barks meant to warn us of trouble. John went out to investigate and found both dogs circling our dump trailer - keeping an injured coyote at bay beneath it. The coyote was apparently unwilling or incapable of fighting its way to safety past our two angry dogs. John quickly put it down with a shot to the head and checked around to see if the coyote had killed or injured any of our animals before the dogs trapped it. Neither dog was injured during this encounter, thankfully, and no livestock was harmed. All in a night's work for these girls, though we rarely see the evidence of their work so plainly.
