Kitty Meow Meow spends some time in the back yard, and he goes in and out the back door as he searches for either some attention from me or a snack from his food dish.
We went to bed, after a goodnight phone call from Steve. He went to Cottonwood for a truck show and didn't make it all the way home. He spent his night in glamorous Seligman off the Interstate.
Around 1am, I was jolted awake by noise outside the bedroom door--the one that leads to the back porch. Now that the weather is behaving we use the evaporative cooler so the back door is open with just the screen door shut. Kitty Meow Meow normally will bristle up and run outside like a guard dog when something's going on out there- but this time he stayed put. That made me nervous.
The noise out there continued, and a thought came to mind, "Maybe there's someone out there who knows I'm home alone...." The amount of noise is convincing me that someone is trying to purposefully get my attention.
I'm normally not a paranoid person but I suppose you should know that there's been a little bit of trouble with my "Opponent," and the police warned me to keep an eye out.
With that in the back of my brain, I finally found the courage to step outside. In the dim moonlight I see something hop up on the back wall, the one that encloses the whole yard. The wall is over six feet tall, and I've always felt safe inside the fortress of Huff-i-tude. (like Solitude, but different) Until last night. I watched a very large coyote--the size of a German Shepard--hop up on the wall and walk along it with the skill of a cat. He paced back and forth, looking around in both our yard and the neighbor's. My heart was in my throat. Coyotes hunt together and it occurred to me that there were likely more than one in the back yard. And I'm standing out there, in the dark, with my focus on this one that's pacing on the back wall.
I duck back in the house and grab my camera. "Nobody will believe this!!" I quickly snap a photo before the coyote gets spooked and jumps down into the neighbor's yard:
What a brilliant piece of evidence.
Of course I can't calm down after that, because I'm worried about Kitty Meow Meow's safety. I've learned that coyotes will stalk a home if they learn that there's a small animal living there. They'll stalk it until they get their kill.
Kitty Meow Meow, your days are numbered.
