Kara, after living with coyotes for years on Cape Cod, I'd never let a cat outdoors without being on a leash. I have a fourteen pound dachshund and he's never out of my sight outdoors, and that's inside a fence, and during the day.

Coyotes are smart and lethal. I do not wish them harm, but would rather they lived some where else.

Carol B. in Sarasota

Kara,

Bamboo_Rabbit, also in Inverness just got finished fencing in his area because of the damage he was getting from the deer.

The coyotes are around here in the rural Floral City area too. I have chain link fencing so they haven't come on the property but I surely can hear them howling at night out in the pastures. One just had a litter and I do hear the little ones yelping and calling when their mama goes foraging. I'm also seeing more feral hogs each year but I haven't seen any deer for a few years. The natural forage for deer is pretty thin to the point of nonexistent with mostly oaks & pines.

Lou

Kara,
I live south of Williston and I've been seeing and hearing coyote quite a lot. Also, the foxes have been more visible. The Sherman fox squirrels have been more active. And, this past month I saw my first burrowing owls and had flying squirrels sleeping in my bluebird boxes during the day :)

Rhonda

I'm in downtown St Pete, and coyote have been killing cats here, right in the City... per article in the Times....I never let my cats out period...across the street is a Bayou and it has an alligator in full view, on the shore... salt-water no less....and loads of possum and coons... sally

Just to let calm any concerns my cats are only allowed out in the garden when I am there to keep an eye on them and are trained to never leave the yard. I've even got them trained to come running when I whistle for them. They also are not allowed out until well after sunrise and are shut inside well before sundown. If anything spooks them they are both quick to run into the house through the pet door in the garage. Today when I saw the deer I had just gone inside to put some things away and was actually looking out the windows to check on the cat.

Rhonda, that reminds me that I think I saw a fox squirel run across the road when I was driving to a friends house. At least I think it was a fox squirrel as it was bigger then any other squirrel I'd ever seen before!

Saw a chupacabra and Big Foot earlier this evening...true story.

cammunizm,

Dang! You must be growing some darned good weed or shrooms!

MOO

We are also in Floral City and have seen coyotes. We also have several hawks that hang around ever since we got chickens - fortunately they can't get into the coop! And a few days ago my son saw a great pileated woodpecker in our back yard.

All, if I can figure out how to upload pics here, I'll post a few of a fox squirrel, gopher tortoise, flying suqirrel and pileated woodpecker.

Rhonda

Here are a few pics of some of the critters in my yard.

Flying squirrel resting in a bluebird box.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2851013800043328493UyHyeT

A few flying squirrels in a BB box.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2562832990043328493hOcRKw

A fox squirrel
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2393432020043328493UBSDpv

and a different fox squirrel
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2254262030043328493YmgXYH

pileated on my car
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2661865760043328493bVJZtW

sneaking up on the sideview mirror
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2644074290043328493czCgML

mirror, mirror on the car.....
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2312211880043328493rSjWgT

I'm king of the car
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2437507300043328493RDbmuT

Tommy, the gopher tortoise
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2785169450043328493iHmdxe

heading home
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2688007890043328493mLuilQ

Interesting you mentioned coyotes downtown St. Pete....

I swear, the other evening, I heard coyotes howling at dusk! I thought at first it was children, but, it was too dark to be children.

Wow...they are here.

>I swear, the other evening, I heard coyotes howling at dusk!

Yeah, my brother lives in Safety Harbor and you can hear them howling there, too. Never used to be any in that area.

Wow....that's crazy. I'm glad my cats are indoor-only!

What's really weird to me is that they coexist with a fair number of homeless folks (also new around there). Their backyard backs up to a wood at the corner of their lot and there are both coyotes and poor unfortunate folks living back in there. I would have thought that either would scare away the other.

(I lived on a ranch in AZ long ago and I will say right out that when I was out alone on foot I was much more afraid of a coyote pack than I was of the Mexican Timber Wolves, and those wolves will pull down an elk.)

The cats that were disappearing were down in Pinellas Point area,the southern point of Pinellas toward the Skyway..... one of the folks was a former neighbor, and all he found of his kitty was a bit of fur... then other people in that area looked around and found remains of their cats.... documented in the Times....what with the coyotes, and the alligators taking small animals, and the invasive huge snakes taking anything they can get hold of, we now live in an urban jungle......sally

Well, since I couldn't figure out how to post pics in my message, I've attached a link to an album with the pics in it.
Rhonda

Here is a link that might be useful: critters in my yard

Wow, Rhonda! Great photos! That is really something to find a nest of flying squirrels in the bluebird box. I have a bluebird house, too, but have never had squirrels use it. How is the house mounted? Is it on a pole or a post? Do you have a predator guard? Thanks for sharing the photos.

Carol M. in Jacksonville

I have seen fox,opossum,racoon, bobcat, armadillo, recently on our property. Haven't seen any coyote lately but saw one last spring. I am sure they are around just waiting for their chance at our chickens or cats lol. We have eagles and lots of hawks and owls too and of course squirrels.

On the Bayou here we have families of Fish-Hawks, they sit in the kapok tree and scream at their parents, and they are as big as their parents !! sally

Carol,
Thanks for the kind words.

I have 3 boxes and each is attached to a pine tree on the edge of a field. I've never had any problem with predators before and I normally have 2 or 3 broods per box each year.

I wasn't too pleased to find the flying squirrels in there. But, they haven't been using the boxes for the past few weeks. I cleaned them out, my bluebirds will start nesting in about a month.

Many of us who have lived up north have been unpleasantly introduced to coyotes. As I have said, I never saw them in the Boston suburbs or on Cape Cod in all the years I've lived there. Now they are plentiful.

I could easily protect my small dog from alligators, but these guys will quickly jump a six foot fence:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120120/BREAKING/120129986

I do admire them. I just don't want them eating my dachshund for lunch.

Carol B. Sarasota