Keep an eye on you furry pets.

[multigraincracker]

It’s coyote breeding season and they are packing up. In a pack they can take down larger animals like dogs.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Good advice. We have to watch out for them in the Missouri Ozarks, believe it or not. Pets are all inside

before dark.

[LT Barclay]

3. I'm north of you, but I've been appalled by the attitudes up here in the KCMO area. It has calmed down recently, but in

Lenexa, KS there was a lot of commentary about the need to rid the world of coyotes (as if it would be possible anyway). But my thought was, what responsible pet owner leaves their pets out overnight anyway? Even if it isn't a coyote, dogs get snatched, there are raccoons, skunks, potentially poisonous snakes, storms, and the fact that especially dogs are pack animals and it probably isn't good for their psyche to be along all night anyway.

[SWBTATTReg]

4. You're absolutely right, there are tons of critters out there, and believe it or not, we've even (rarely)

have seen black bears in the area, coming up from Arkansas, I'm guessing that they're hungry or what. That's why I don't really walk outside at night too much, except on our well-traveled gravel roads, pretty close to our MH park, homes. Too many deer around too, that our dogs would go running after too.

[LT Barclay]

5. Our first family dog was a beagle and she was old and tired, but smelled a rabbit and took off like a rocket.

We took her from the country, but never got the country out of her (including raiding the trash can to her dying day!).
I'm trying to find ways to see more critters in the wild rather than in the zoo, so I'd love to see a black bear, but I'd rather not when our dog is with us. I don't need a live repeat of the old disney movie "The Incredible Journey", because my wife would likely go after the bear if she felt the dog was threatened (not joking). I was really hopeful when we took the Branson Scenic Railway, but alas I'll have to wait for another day!
I've heard that there have been some cougars entering the area from further north, but so far the hunters have been killing them as fast as they arrive. I've been hopeful about wolves coming in from Minnesota, but I'm afraid they'd meet the same fate. Maybe they'll work their way in following the Missouri River.

[multigraincracker]

2. I can hear them at night

yelping to call the pack. Seen a few out in the fields during daylight.