The Year of the Predator

Gary Sorenson with a coyote he busted as he readied for a business meeting.

A couple weeks ago, my dad blogged about why he loved living in the West - well, this past Saturday, I had one of my own reminders why I love living in the Western United States. Dad and I had a business meeting lined up for Saturday morning to go over this website project with our marketing guru. Well, Dad had not been feeling well, so I called Mom and Dad’s house in the morning to see if Dad was still planning on meeting us for our meeting. Mom answered the phone, and I started to ask if Dad was coming. When Mom recognized my voice, she said, “Shhhh, can I call you back? Dad’s about to shoot a coyote.” Then she hung up. Well, apparently, Dad was heading out the door to get to our meeting when Mom noticed the coyote slinking across the back pasture - Dad has never been a big gun owner - he has a shotgun to do his bird hunting, a bow to do most of his big game hunting, a pistol for protection in the wild, and….a 7mm for his big game rifle hunts. So, he outs with the 7mm and let the yote have it. After a quick picture, he hopped in the car and met us in Ontario, Oregon for our meeting.

After our meeting ended, I called Mom to let her know how it went, and got the rest of the story. After Dad left, Mom dutifully called me back as she said she would. She let me know Dad was coming to the meeting (the original intent of my call earlier that morning) and that he’d connected on the coyote. I told her she should check with my brother, Todd to see if he wanted to keep the hide. That is when she reminded me that Dad shoots a 7mm, and there probably wouldn’t be much of a hide. She called Todd anyways. Instead she got a hold of Todd’s wife, Krystal and as she talked with Krystal, another coyote came trotting along the same path. In the video, you’ll hear her as she talks with Krystal as she tries to film this new coyote. Todd gets on the phone and wants Mom to shoot the coyote, but Mom fears she’s been too long out of practice shooting a rifle, so is content to film. What she got on film is some of the coolest footage I’ve seen. This coyote cruises the ditch bank just behind the house, hops down in the ditch, and catches a mouse. Then the yote proceeds to play with it just like a cat would do. It lets the mouse run away, then pounces on it again, then lets it run back into the ditch, before tossing it in the air a few times and gulping it down in a couple chomps. Of course, we wish she would have THEN decided to let some lead fly, but I’m very glad for the footage! Check it out below.

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