IS THE ANIMAL PLANET FILMING AT MY HOUSE?

Are you all familiar with the Animal Planet channel?  I used to love watching all those cute shows about puppies and and different wildlife around the world.  I am really dating myself here but when I was young my parents used to watch Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.  I could never stand to watch it as there was always some lion or tiger stalking a zebra with babies or something like that.  I know there is a circle of life but I am not sure I want to see it play out right before my eyes.  Well last night I got a big surprise because I could swear someone was filming for an animal program right in my backyard.  

I was calmly settling in to watch a bit of TV and knit, around 8pm when I heard a huge crash and assorted noises I was not familiar with.  I am a bit  hard of hearing, so locating sounds is not always easy for me.  I could not figure out if it was in my garage, laundry room or outside.  When suddenly I heard a splash in my pool.  It was pretty dark out, so the pool is not all that visible but we have a large light just outside the pool that shines up into the trees, so that provided a bit of light.  I got up and ran to the sliding glass door, which was open by the way and saw a small deer in the pool.  I shut the door so the deer would not come in the house and ran to get the phone to call my neighbor (as my husband is in California right now).  Just then I saw the Mother deer frantically running back and forth outside the screen enclosure with a large  (for Florida) coyote.  They were both running around looking for the baby.  Before I could even set the phone down the baby was out of my pool and had busted through another portion of the screen right in front of the coyote.  So what I saw next was the coyote grabbing the baby by the neck and taking it down to the grass, which made me immediately run out of my house onto my lanai screaming and hitting the pool enclosure.  The coyote instantly let the baby go and they both ran off into the woods behind my house.  The baby had gotten up and ran, so I knew it was still relatively okay, and a few minutes later I saw Mom and baby running across my neighbor's backyard.  My brave neighbor Peter came over to investigate with me as I still was not certain there was not an animal in my pool area.  We found the screen where the baby, who I assume was being chased by the coyote, entered the pool area, and then found where it exited.  

After a few minutes I caught my breath, my heart started to slow down a bit when I saw Mother deer prancing about my next door neighbor's backyard, the coyote hot on her heels, I screamed at the coyote and banged on the metal of the screen and the coyote ran off.  Thirty minutes after that the coyote ran across my back yard with the Mom in hot pursuit.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that the baby is okay.  What I witnessed was pretty horrifying, but at the same time it was fascinating to see that there is nothing a Mother won't do to protect her young, including enticing a coyote to move away from her baby.  I swear I could not settle down to go to sleep last night.  I am an animal lover.  I save turtles crossing the road, spiders in my house, frogs in my pool, and worms on my driveway after it rains.  I can not stand for an animal to be hurt.  

This is a picture of how close my backyard is to the sliding glass door where I was standing last night.  Max is in the spot where the coyote and the baby had a big tussle.  The brown box to the right of the picture is the light that shines up into the trees. (But only for a short time every evening)

 

See the broken screen where that poor terrified baby exited my pool area?

 

Where was Max you ask, during this whole horrible episode?  Well he was asleep in the laundry room, he did not make a peep, even with the crash and his Mother screaming like a lunatic.  I wonder if his hearing is going.  He has always had selective hearing, not unlike the other males in my home, but I think he would have heard all that commotion if his hearing was okay.

 

Once I got home from work today I let Max out into the pool area and into the backyard.  Boy once he caught the scent of all that action he was smelling and licking everything.  I was fascinated watching him, it seemed he knew the chain of events just by where he was smelling.   He went exactly to the spot the coyote entered the woods and stood with his paw up, and his tail up like he was pointing.

After that whole story I need something calm and beautiful to look at.  It is a shame I don't drink cause I can assure you a good glass of wine was much needed last night.

Here is to a calmer evening tonight. And I just have to add, why does everything happen when your husband is away?