Animals we have here are raccoons, possums, occasional deer, due to overbuilding.

We did have a warning at our condo, not too long about, about a BIG CAT, that strayed in our area, but he appears to have wandered elsewhere.

Glenda sounds like you have some interesting animals there ! We have never seen any of those around here. I hear about deer and raccoon sightings when you get closer to the mountains though. I wonder what kind of cat your being warned to look out for ? Maybe a bobcat or mountain lion ?

We have coyotes where we live too. I've seen them out in the rice field behind our house a few times. They seem to keep their distance. We also have possums, cotton tails, deer on occasion, river otters (I love them) and I'm sure raccoons although I have never seen any. Oh and snakes too.

We have seen coyotes, wolves, possums, armadillos, racoons, squirrels, chipmunks, skunks, and deer in our own front yard. We had about a 6 acre front yard.. Not all at once of course.. I have heard Bobcats, and actually saw a momma with 3 kits one day down the road from us. She was beautiful.. and her kits were cute as can be... There has been talk of bear around here too, but I havn't seen any.

Carolyn

If I never see another snake, it will be okay with me...its the one critter that scares me to death.
I am not afraid of a domestic snake (pet type) but we have Mojave green rattlesnakes and they are deadly.

We live in a small rural area and we see and hear coyotes a lot here. Also see deer, possums, racoons and fox. We have a place in the southern part of our state and my hubby got a picture of a bobcat on his field camera. Beautiful animal... Now that the farmers are getting the crops out of the fields the deer are on the move. Love seeing them..

Susie

We see deer, raccoons, possums, squirrels, skunks, an assortment of snakes including copperheads and an occasional red fox. I think we had a bear one night since the metal post on our bird feeder was bent all the way to the ground... not sure what else could have done that.

We live in a small town, and see an occasional stray cat, but in the fall about deer-hunting time, we have seen deer in our back yard in the early ,morning, and neighbors who walk their dogs in a wooded lot next door, see where they bed down at night. When hunting season is over, they aren't around any more. Now those are smart animals! Our late son lived in the high desert near Lancaster CA, and had two dogs. Brian said he could always know when a rattler was in the yard because of the dogs different bark. Brian would go out with a grabber type of gismo, grab the snake, put it is a lidded box kept on the back of his 4 wheeler, take it out in the desert and let it go. Our oldest son lives in the country and regularly sees coyotes, wolves, deer, pheasants. rabbits, turtles and frogs. Then our daughter lives in a suburb of Minneapolis, and she said there is often deer, raccoons, and possum in her back yard. In the case of seeing wild animals in lere populated areas, is because of the way people keep building in the animals neighborhood.

The last couple of years, late at night, I hear shrill howling and yipping; last night I heard it very close. Someone told me there is a fox den about a half mile down the road next to a barn. So, it's either fox or coyote; and it's not like the area is void of houses and people or a busy highway.

I keep my cat inside at night. Have also noticed we don't have as many rabbits in Spring or summer.

I am 50 years old and travel quite a bit on country roads up north. I have never seen a coyote, until this year. In the last 2 months I have seen 4 of them. 2 alive on the road and 2 dead on the road. It's been a joke around here that if you want to see a coyote, take a ride with Judy!!

We don't yet have coyotes yet on Long Island, but I went to a nature conservation meeting last week and the speaker said it's just a matter of time. we will get them. Heavens, we alreadsy have raccoons, possums, rabbits, wild turkeys, owls, and deer. And neighbors say it isn't unusual for pet cats and dogs to go missing. There's plenty of prey here already.

i sort of confronted one (not the brightest thing to do) one early sat...momma duck and her babies often hang out in our creek/drainage ditch...heard her quacking like crazy and knew something was wrong...."he" was having duck sushi so yelled at it till it left...then realized what type of critter it was...(at first thought fox) the ones here are a bit smaller than ca...

i warned the neighbors and havn't seen one since...

I too use to live in the Antelope Valley near Lancaster Ca. We had raccoons, lynx, coyotes, bob cats, bear that came from them dumping the garbage bears in the mountains (that is were we lived --in the mountains-- mountain lions and had the Mojave green rattlesnakes and the regular rattlesnakes, and the black ones which are less aggressive. Did not have the red ones, which were in Red Rock Canyon.
The reason the Mojave greens are so dangerous is because they are a pit viper and they are extremely aggressive. For many many years they were only on/near Edwards AFB but did gradually spread out. You cannot tell the difference just by looking at them as sometimes the regular diamond back can be green looking only. I took a course on dangerous snakes of the dessert and it was quiet fascinating. As far as anyone can tell, the Mojave greens are only located in that area. No one has ever found out why/how they got started.

Last night I thought a coyote was directly under my BR window, but our Westie's non-reaction told me he was probably farther away! Our house is bounded by a creek on the east and a conservancy on the south.

We are 30 miles north of Chicago, but a greenbelt of forest preserves, golf courses and waterways provides a 'throughway' for wildlife that runs from Central Illinois up into Wisconsin. We have deer, coyotes, skunk, raccoons, possums, grey squirrels, chipmunks, ducks, geese, hawks, and a great blue heron who nests on the creek bank every summer. I haven't seen a fox in a long time. DH saw a cougar a month ago -- that's a first!

We've had to 'relocate' an 18" snapping turtle from our driveway back into the creek, and I have removed several toads from a window well. (A long-handled light bulb changer and a pail work great for this task.)

If you have coyotes in your area, you need to keep cats and small dogs inside at all times unless you have them on a leash outside. I have a cousin who lives just outside San Diego in El Cajon and she lost several house cats by letting them out during the day. Her cats are now indoors 24/7.
We have rabbits and squirrels around here and once in a while we see a red fox running through the cemetery.

We have a good variety of wildlife here. Coyotes are common as are all of the smaller mammals normally seen in this part of the country... raccoons, opossum, porcupines, beavers, otters, fishers, jack rabbits, bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks, (and many others I'm not thinking to name at the moment). We also have the bigger wildlife. Deer in (over)abundance, black bears, wolves, big cats (including an occasional cougar). We can see moose (rarely) within a hundred miles, although they do not live right here on the Keweenaw.

We're sitting out in the middle of farm country here in s.e. Wisconsin. We see alot of wood chucks, racoons, ugly possums, sand hill cranes, the occasional deer, lots of wild turkeys, fox and lots of coyotes. Seeing some serious spiders in the gardens right now and summer is riddled with garden snakes. Hate snakes.

two.25acres -- Shall I send you a message via deer? LOL I've joked that I could send DIL's parents a message in a bottle via our creek. It empties into the Skokie lagoons and on south to the North Branch of the Chicago River. It would get there faster than the US Mail during spring rains! You could kayak down there then.

We hear packs of coyotes howling most every night, very eerie sounding. My two cats always perk up when they hear them but they don't run to the window to look or anything.

There are deer in our yard almost every day, love to watch them.

I think the eagles are back too, heard one yesterday. We always see them in the winter along the river next to the house. Sometimes they perch in a tree outside the window by my desk.

Love wildlife!

Except snakes.

When we moved here 35 years ago, coyotes were a rarity. Somebody shot one because he didn't know what it was (great reason, huh?), and it was identified as an Eastern Coyote. Since then they have proliferated. I didn't hear any this year, but in past summers I heard them howling in the not-too-distant woods and fields.

I've heard packs of them can attract and pick up domestic dogs. They breed together, and produce "coydogs." I don't know how much of this is true and how much is rural legend.

As for other wildlife, we have loads of deer and the usual squirrels, snakes, chipmunks, mice, rats, skunks, possums, porcupines, raccoons, fox, beavers, and bear. And whatever else I forgot. :-)

We also have bobcats, and there have been numerous sightings of mountain lions, although the official word from the PA Game Commission is that there are no mountain lions here. I saw one sitting on a log in daylight, and my son saw one bound across the road right in front of his car at night.

Alisande--this is true as where we lived before, people in the city would dump their dogs in our area. If they did not get killed, either by cars or wildlife, they would breed with the coyotes and that is very dangerous. Manily because after mixing, they seem to loose their fear of man. I laughed when you said the "official" word from PA commission said no mountain lions because just a few years ago, the ND Game and Fish said the same thing and that was after a neighbor killed one while pheasont hunting and she charged the dog and him. Now we have seasons for hunting, because more have been seen.

DP house use to be in the country, now we have 150 neighbors behind us (Where an abandon plum orchard use to be) and 375 neighbors across the street (where Thompson grapes grew). We don't have a much wild life as we use to for some strange reason.

My DB lives three miles further out and he has a coyote that must live very close to him, he sees it every day. There is a coy-dog that lives near his house too, it is white except for a black splotch on his nose and his tail tip, but the build and scull structure is definitely coyote. Even the local animal control officer says so.

We have all manor of hawk that flies around our skies. A big old barn owl that rests in our 60' O'dare Cedar trees in the evening before continuing on his journey; Daddy and I use to watch him while Daddy watered the yard. There's lots of ground squirrels in the area, we had a mama opossum living under the house for about a week (until it became road-kill one night). There is lots of other little critters, but that's about it.

We have coyotes around but they haven't been a problem until recently, my cats started missing, one by one. I'm not sure if it is a coyote or the neighbor up the road turning his dog loose at night. He has killed another neighbor's dog, so wouldn't surprise me if he killed the cats too. One cat came up with a deep puncture wound on her neck, but she recovered. That is why I got the donkeys...to help keep the coyotes out of the upper pasture, where they can come through.

We also have big cat sitings...almost all my neighbors have seen them and my friend saw one not long ago. We have all the native animals...have seen them all at one time or another....bob cats, coyotes, deer, river otters, coons, possums, grey fox, swamp and cottontail rabbits, skunks, and all kinds of snakes, birds, etc. I don't mind having any of them around.

I used to hear coyotes all the time, but the area is getting so built up, they're being pushed out.

My walking partner and I go out about 6:30 in the morning, and one morning we heard what sounded like a very young coyote crying. Way off in the distance, another one answered. The young one cried again, and again the older one replied, sounding quite a bit closer. This went on for several exchanges, with the older one getting closer and closer each time it answered the young one. Pretty soon they sounded like they were within a few feet of each other and then there was a sort of chorus of happy-sounding yelps and yips. After that, total silence. we both kind of went "Oh-o-o-o-oh" as we pictured junior being escorted safely back to the pack. Made me feel good all day.

Jann

I saw two little coyotes not long ago. Was driving down a highway that had a big drainage ditch that crossed it. The county had mowed the banks of the ditch and as my eye followed it, I saw two coyote pups bouncing and playing. I know a lot of people don't like them, but they are one of our native animals and it made me smile to see them.

We had a coyote that came to dinner every evening for many months. Some people dumped out three coyote pups near my place. They had taken them from their den, partially raised them, decided they didn't want them any more, and just dumped them out...knowing I feed wildlife.

I was upset at first because I didn't want them eating the raccoons, possums and cats, and soon two left, but one stayed for a long time. I used to take food back to him at the edge of the woods. He would meet me every evening. He would be laying at the edge of the pasture, and see me coming and jump up and run through the woods and back around to the fence. I'd put his food over the fence, while he stood about 30' away. As soon as I turned my back, I could hear him chomping the dog chow. I fed him dog food, but he also loved fruit...especially bananas and watermelon and always ate that first. Eventually he left but one time I looked across the pasture and he was there. I took food to him but he looked thin. I left his food and for several days I left food for him, but never saw him again after that.

Coyotes are pretty common in our area. The neighbor across the street lost two pricey pedigreed Burmese cats before they realized coyotes were getting to them. All their kitties are now kept safe in the house.

I've seen coyotes strolling down the street or hanging out in a field with a family pack in broad daylight. They have never caused me any harm.

We also have opossums, an occasional raccoon, tarantulas and way, way too many huge black ravens.

Jodi-