Coyotes may have been responsible for attack on family dog

To the Editor:

I would first like to express my sincere condolences to the Lennerts of Em Kayan village, whose black lab died after being savagely attacked on Dec. 23.

He was a nice dog, and I know how awful it is to lose a member of the family in this manner.

I would also like to offer a bit of perspective concerning this event to the folks at Em Kayan village.

This attack took place on my driveway, and for this reason, my dogs are being blamed as the vicious attackers. The lab has been almost a regular at my place for the last three years or so, always joyously received by my neutered dogs.

I actually complained to the Lennerts this summer. My concern was that my dogs were enjoying him so much that they might begin to go roaming with him as a result of his frequent visits here.

For my dogs to now suddenly lie in wait at the lower end of my long driveway and attack this dog seems extremely out of character, especially since multiple other friends' dogs - large and small - have visited frequently without incident.

Meanwhile, my 16-pound Pomeranian-mix continues to growl the two large dogs away from her food dish. Is it a strange coincidence that in the week preceding the attack, coyotes were around on a daily basis, and my dogs were barking most of the evening and night at them?

Further, about two days before the attack, I found two coyotes on my property out the back door in the process of luring my youngest dog off the place in broad daylight. Had I not seen and called him back, they would have succeeded.

Strangely, the attack occurred where the deer cross my driveway and where I commonly find coyote scat. Can it also be significant that about 2,000 feet of my property line borders U.S. Forest Service land, and my property is a traverse area for bear, deer, moose and lions as well as coyotes?

I am very sad that this event happened, partly for the loss of the wandering dog, and partly for the reaction this has caused in the community.

What really happened here during this unwitnessed event?

My older dog has experienced a coyote attack before and could not have helped but respond because of his experience and his selfless instinct. I believe my dogs were the reasons the lab got away without being killed outright, dismembered or disemboweled.

Since living here, I have lost a cat and a dog, probably to coyotes, and my other small dog has been attacked but was saved by my big dog. I feel my animals are constantly at risk, and it may only be a matter of time.

This is the frontier of the wilderness, not a peaceful suburb, and I hope the residents of Em Kayan village are as aware of this as I am.

Jane Borish