STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

A Sun Valley woman and her dog found themselves stalked and encircled by coyotes while walking near Our Lady of Our Snows Catholic Church this weekend.

Rae DeVito said she took her dog Sally walking across Festival Field following 5 p.m. Mass and coffee hour at the church. They followed a path that parallels the horse pasture north towards Saddle Road.

“We love that path and walk it frequently, as Sally loves the horses and visa versa. And we have seen other dog walkers on it,” said DeVito.

DeVito and Sally had nearly traversed the length of the field when they appeared to startle some deer.  Sally came to attention as the deer began running away, and took a few steps in front of DeVito.

All of a sudden, she turned tail and ran back to DeVito with two coyotes in pursuit.

As DeVito and Sally tried to back away, the coyote followed, stalking them, keeping their eye on Sally as they inched closer and closer.

“They never stopped until we got out into the open field. They just kept pacing back and forth between Sally and me,” DeVito said.

Panicked, DeVito remembered how she’d encountered a coyote last summer by the golf course.

“I waved my walking stick and made some original sounds and that one coyote eventually backed off,” she recounted.

She tried that with these two coyotes, waving her stick and yelling. But it didn’t seem to help. The coyote kept up their pursuit until DeVito and Sally got out of the sagebrush into the open field.

“Perhaps the hysterical human waving a stick gave them a pause and us an advantage,” DeVito said. “If we had stopped, it could have been end game as they were fearless and relentless.  The grass and sagebrush have grown so tall they had great cover and could get pretty close.”

DeVito says she suspects there’s a den in the area and that the coyotes guarding that den go out by two to lure and circle a prey.

“They are invisible in the tall sagebrush until they’re on your heels,” she said. “The deer can thank us for creating a disturbance that let them get away. I’m just thankful we got away, as well.”

Coyotes typically have their pups in April and so are most territorial into June. The standard piece of advice when encountering a coyote is to raise your arms in the air, look big and make a deep loud noise. Throw something at them and scream at them. Stand your ground and be aggressive.