A golden retriever rescued a smaller dog on South Bald Hill Road as the latter was being carried off by a hungry coyote, New Canaan police said.
This is one of our golden retrievers, Russell—not the hero of this article. Russell is 9. Those are his tennis balls, photo taken just after the snow finally burnt off in early April. Credit: Michael Dinan
Shortly after 9 p.m. on May 6 (a Tuesday), a coyote skulked into the yard where the golden retriever and its step-sibling—a smaller, Lhasa Apso-type dog—were idling within the boundaries of their invisible fence, according to the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control Unit.
A coyote went for the smaller dog and had the animal in its jaws when the golden retriever counter-attacked, rescuing its sibling from certain death, Animal Control Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt said.
“If the [golden retriever] hadn’t been there then the small dog would not be alive,” Kleinschmitt said. “There were puncture wounds on the small dog.”
This photograph of a coyote on an Evergreen Road property was taken March 13, 2014. Credit: Maria Naughton
The dogs’ owner was at home at the time and came upon the scene outside after he’d heard his smaller dog screeching, and then saw the golden chasing off the coyote, Kleinschmitt said. The owner only reported the incident this week, Kleinschmitt said.
The owner has been instructed not to allow his smaller dog to linger outside unattended, Kleinschmitt said.
“Small ones are food,” she said.
If confronted by a coyote, humans are encouraged to bang together tin pots and pans.
“Animals have a sense-memory and the tininess hurts ears to the point where they often will stay off of the property afterwards,” Kleinschmitt said.
In a separate incident, at about 5:48 p.m. on May 12, a standard poodle on Parade Hill Lane killed a woodchuck, according to a police report.
Rabies tests for the woodchuck came back negative, Kleinschmitt said.
Here’s a map that plots coyote sightings this year in New Canaan: