Seeing as this thread is about dangerous animals, I can give you a small story about the recent nature hikes me and my kids have been doing. Recently I had heard that kids get about 50% less time outdoors today than they did about 20 years ago, so this summer I have tried to be the outdoorsman with my kids. I work for a company that does the marketing for the Forest Services "Where the Other You lives" website(here's a link) so I used that as a resource for outdoor activities, and one of the things they suggest is finding animal tracks and identifying them with your kids. One day after finding deer tracks and smaller rodent tracks, we found what seemed to definitely be wolf or coyote tracks, needless to say we got back to the house right away lol.
Coyotes are usually very cautious around people. I've tried to follow them, and at best they will stand staring about thirty feet away. I don't think you need to fear them, but your cat should.
Wolves are not dangerous to people. The first-ever recorded attack of a wolf against a human was very recently, and the situation was extremely unusual. Coyotes are no danger to people at all. But even bears are less dangerous than automobiles, if you treat the bear with the proper caution and respect.
Wolves and coyotes aren't a problem. It's feral dogs, heck even some domestic ones, you should worry about. Also be wary of house cats. They aren't domesticated, they're just too small to kill and eat you.
My cat never wanted to kill and eat me. He had too much fun jumping on my stomach while I napped on the couch. He'd not have wanted to lose that. And he didn't even kill mice. He just played with them until they got away. He only wanted to eat cat food and anything dairy and any variety of mint. He thought all mint was catmint. He went berserk at the smell of mint-flavored chewing gum, and when I used peppermint toothpaste he'd try to stick his head inside my mouth! Oh, yes: he loved to eat corn husks; he was insanely desperate to get at corn husks, and they always made him barf. He was so cute! It's been 20 years and I still miss him.
My cat would kill the entire family in a heartbeat if she could figure out how. Later she would wonder why her food bowl was empty. Tom
We have what seems to be several packs of coyotes near our place. Often times at night you can one bunch howling off to the east, then be answered by some to the west or south. One night I could pick out howls from five distinct directions, really a nice relaxing sound to hear, at least for this farm kid.
I'm fairly certain my two cats love me and would never harm me. But, in the back of my mind, is always that "what if?" thought.
Our cat loves us too, but she has these psychotic episodes where she flips out and turns on everyone. The transition time is about a quarter of a second: purr, purr, purr; eyes dilate; BAM! Tom
Makes a lot of sense. since then I've come across several more cannine tracks. It's always interesting around here.
