It's Actually Raining! - Coyote and Bears

I just glanced toward the patio window, and laughed...  Lovey's washing herself on the top of the cat tree, but Nedi is perched on the back of a wicker chair on the patio, looking in.  I said, "You're a handsome man."  So he trotted inside and leapt up onto the desk; his fur is wet - not dripping, but with tiny droplets spangling most of his body.  He enjoys playing in the rain, while Lovey doesn't.  I'd guess it's because she's a slick-coated short hair and he's got medium to long fur that is very fluffy.  In any event, it is raining - and we need the rain, as usual.  I have to say I'm happy that Boulder didn't get the hail that parts of Denver got yesterday afternoon - it would have ruined the raspberry bushes...  In west Denver, some areas got up to two feet of hail, making it look like a winter wonderland.  Folks were shoveling hail off their driveways in sneakers, shorts and T-shirts; then the rain followed...

Hail storm in Denver, 9 September 2013

Yesterday, the Department of Wildlife killed a 590-pound black bear that was raiding trash cans near Flatirons Elementary School here in Boulder.  The bear had been caught and tagged twice before, and after the last incident, the bear was taken to the Colorado-Wyoming border.  He was back in Boulder in 5 weeks' time.  Friday, Flatirons was on lock-down because of the presence of a 200-pound black bear, who was also a repeat-offender.  The smaller bear was killed Friday afternoon.  Upon doing a necropsy, the large bear's stomach contents were found to be: two steaks, wrapped in plastic and on styrofoam trays; pasta and cheese; apples; avocados; potatoes; carrots; eggs; celery; packaged deli meats and greasy paper towels.  The trash habits of our residents are contributing to the deaths of the bears - Boulder trash is both easy and sweet pickings.  The 80 to 90 pounds of food per day that a black bear needs in September is easily available in unsecured urban trash containers that are not bear proof.

The 590 pound black bear that was killed yesterday in Boulder

Also, yesterday, a family on Poplar Avenue lost their young tabby cat to a coyote.  My friend Alexy looked out her bedroom window yesterday morning to see a coyote running by with a cat in it's mouth.  She burst out onto her patio, grabbed her police whistle, and ran after the coyote, blowing the whistle as loud as she could.  It was too late.  The coyote dropped the cat at Alexy's property line, but the coyote took the head with her.  Alexy contacted me, and I sent the word out via the Wildlife Warning newsletter.  A couple came and identified their daughters' new cat, and took the remains home for burial.  It's not fun reporting death and destruction, and asking for identification aid....