[mdd]

Central Kansas was no different than much of the country this past summer. We suffered through a miserable drought and scorching temperatures. This obviously put quite a strain on the food supply for our abundant coyote population which in turn made them take risks I have never before seen them take. Like many of us, I live in the sticks and am surrounded by open area.

One evening back in august my little mini Aussie was outside romping like every evening. Chasing cats, barking at the calves, etc. She was right outside a window when i heard her squall and yelp like never before. I knew immediately she got ambushed and was out the door with my 45 in a flash.

I assumed whatever had her was either killing her or had finished the job and was carrying her off. As soon as I cleared my porch I sent two rounds into my shelter belt to get the attacker's attention and hopefully get it to drop Maggie if that was the case. As I rounded the corner I saw a coyote loping back to the shelter belt. I had to wait for a clear line of fire before unloading the magazine but none of my rounds connected.

I saw Maggie laying in a heap and ran over to her. Knowing how dogs or coyotes attack each other, I assumed the trauma would be to her neck area. I was definitely correct as I found out when i assessed her condition. At first I thought she was dead but luckily she wasn't. I did the best one handed log roll I could manage and used my left arm as a spine board to keep her neck stabilized as best as possible and made tracks back inside.

The blood started pouring out of her wounds as soon as I picked her up. By the time i got back inside, both my hands were covered and it was dripping off of us both. I laid her on her favorite blanket and folded it in such a way as to stabilize her neck then used the rest to tightly cover her up. I wanted to keep her as warm as possible to hopefully slow the onset of shock.

Into the pickup we went and the old cummins diesel spared no dinosaur juice getting to the veterinarian. We were rolling coal the whole way. A few times during the thirty five mile trip I thought Maggie had died but a sternal rub would reveal some signs of life so we pressed on.

Upon arrival at the veterinary clinic, the prognosis was no bueno. The vet did an excellent job but we both knew she probably wouldn't live through the night. Regardless, he cleaned and dressed the wounds (left them open to drain) and started an I.V. with pain meds so she could be comfortable. He took some X-rays of her neck and showed me the damage. He told me if she made it through, she may be paralyzed on one side because it looked like she had a fracture in what would be the equivalent of the c2 vertebrae.

By this time the pain meds were taking effect and she was relaxed so we placed her in a kennel and i went home feeling quite powerless to help my best friend. The vet assured me he would call in the morning and let me know how she was.

When the phone rang the next morning I fully expected to have to make a return trip to bring her home and bury her but she made it through the night! It was two days before she ate or drank anything and by day five she could sort of prop herself up on her right front leg. At that point the vet said I could bring her home if i felt comfortable with taking care of her.

It was about two weeks before she was even strong enough to hold herself up to go potty and about three weeks before she could get around a little on her own. Two months later she is doing better than I ever could have hoped and can jump in the pickup to go along with me again.

Why is this in "the hunt" forum you may be wondering. Because I have taken it upon myself to kill every coyote I see. I have been calling for a few years now and can do reasonably well in bringing them to me. Also I have stopped passing up chance opportunities as I go about my day to day work around the farm. I am going to post pictures of the coyotes I remove from the gene pool as I can. These photos may be graphic so I am giving fair warning now. The first few pictures will be of Maggie so you can see the story a bit. Here goes.