GRAVETTE — That did it. I am plumb aggravated and it took a bunch to get me here but I am firmly here! I try real hard to take care of the country, stopped carrying a gun in my truck several years ago to prevent any unwarranted accidents and wanted to keep quail and rabbits around. The gun is back in the truck and I intend to use it.
My close relative’s favorite old cow, a throwback to the days of using an unregistered bull, is also one of my favorites. You probably wouldn’t see anything different about her if you were just looking at the herd but her face is the same old long, thin face of her great twice removed Grandma. Her name is Bonnie and she is getting pretty aged.
I saw Bonnie and her calf late Sunday evening. The calf was prettyscrawny but the heifer calf last year came on and did well. I had thought about getting her and the calf up to give her some Probias and grain but didn’t act on the thought. And the calf was bucking around and maybe he enjoyed being skinny, I wouldn’t know!
A neighbor came by yesterday morning, Jim and his one-eyed dog, and you know he never just comes by. He came blowing in, inside a cloud of dust doing about 60. That dog was hanging on with all 20 talons and two dew claws were trying to reach wood. A pack of coyotes had been carrying on real loud around Jim’s house and as he drove around this morning he noticed them feeding on something in my pasture.
Dang right, it was old Bonnie’s calf, about asix week old calf, should have been way out of their means to bring down. I figure they are getting too cocky and dangerous to let go any longer. Jim had taken a couple out without so much as a bat of his eye and would have gotten all of them if they had stayed out of the timber.
Here we are, living in the most tech savvy age, trying to keep a green planet and do everything according to law but I am not gonna take kindly to coyotes. The death rate of one calf is enough to push me over the kindness felt for awhile. I recover pretty fast.
I drove around all the pastures and all else seemed secure. I can almost hear quail, almost because there just aren’t any. The turkeys I used to see around are gone and the cottontail population has dwindled to just a few.I guess we could stand still and let the mangy critters take over, them and the skunks and armadillos, but this is one old Keeper of the Land who is going to wage war on the nasty canines.
It is my opinion, and everyone has one, the bounty that was paid for coyote ears when I was a youngster should be reinstated. The braver they get the less safe your yard dog and mine are. The longer we let them run freely the less safe the toddlers are that play at the edge of the woods.
No, I don’t want to wipe them out but I don’t want them to wipe us out either and I have declared a range war on the species. When I tell the close relative about Bonnie’s loss she will be packing iron right along side of me.
Opinion, Pages 4 on 12/02/2009