A homeowner in Waukesha for 20 years, Steve is president of the Waukesha Dog Parks Organization and enjoys motorcycling, fishing and staying on top of politics.
I'm told that Brookfield is warning residents about coyotes in the city. At Mitchell Park Dog Park Kanook and I have encountered them the last three years with a close encounter a few weeks ago. We frequently visit the park in the evening and this particular night I had on a baseball cap visor light. It clips on the visor and and is always shining where you are looking. Kanook was his usually 100 feet or so in front of me when I looked into the woods and four eyes were glowing back at me! I could see that they were coyotes and they were only fifteen feet away! I verified the distance the next day. Kanook had trotted by, oblivious to them and they paid no mind to him. Thinking that they might follow and tear into Kanook, I took a step towards them and growled in a low voice, "get outta here!" Wise or not, they turned and took off. Kanook still oblivious to them. I never claimed he was the sharpest pup in the pack.
Fast forward to this week. Because of the muddy conditions at the park, I have a back-up park. The property of where I work in Pewaukee. It is literally just up the railroad tracks from Mitchell Park about three miles. While walking around the property one night Kanook and I heard the howl of three coyotes to the south, in the area of the Waukesha Gun Club. Kanook was showing a desire to heed the "call of the wild" but I brought him back to sanity. I suspect the pack had followed the railroad tracks west and cut south where some woods yet to succumb to development are and a drainage ditch continues to another small forest awaiting the destiny of development.
As the Fox River begins near Mitchell Park and runs through it, I suspect that they will someday enter the city by Frame Park when their habitat is totally destroyed. We don't want them in our back yard. I'm sure they miss theirs.
