COLORADO SPRINGS – A family from Briargate is grieving the loss of their puppy taken by a coyote over the weekend. The owner fought the coyote to get the pup back using her prosthetic leg.
Robin Kraft said it all happened Sunday evening near the Skyline trail which runs through a utility easement behind her property. She said she’d just let the 13 week old puppy named Bandit, its littermate Grinder and her adult shepherd mix named Hope outside for about five minutes. When she went to bring them back inside, Bandit was missing.
“I knew something was wrong and I knew that puppy wouldn’t leave the yard without Hope,” Kraft said.
She drove around to the trailhead to look for the pup, and that’s when she saw the coyote.
“I saw the brown and white (fur) laying on the rocks and a coyote, a big coyote was out there and some birds,” she said.
Robin screamed at the coyote and try to shoo it away but it wouldn’t leave.
“I kicked the coyote like in the face or in the chest or something and kept screaming at it to get back because I didn’t know if the dog was alive or not.”
Bandit didn’t survive. Robin said the coyote came back at least two or three times trying to take the puppy. So, she had to keep kicking and yelling to finally scare it off. She didn’t stop to think about her safety.
“Even if it were a mountain lion, I probably would’ve done the same thing and then just thought, what did I just do,” she said.
Robin thinks the coyote got into her yard through a hole in the fence. She patched it and now keeps a careful watch over dogs while they’re in the yard.
She suspects the coyote was a mother looking to feed her cubs.
In a web page titled Living with Coyotes in Colorado, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers point out that coyotes typically have their pups in May and June. Coyotes are omnivores and CPW warns homeowners to not leave pet food or garbage outdoors because it can attract them.
They also urge pet owners to always walk their dogs on 6 foot leash, and if you come across a coyote while outdoors, be loud like Robin and stomp your feet to try and scare the animal away.
