2007-06-28

Uses for a Coyote

Just returned from a family reunion and received the following email from a cousin who is having Canada Geese problems --- or, should I say Canada Geese poop problems. The attempted solution is a Coyote blow-up doll:

Do you or does anyone you know have tried and true advice-cum-experience re. making one's pond un-appealing to geese? For the first time in 30 plus years, a family of Canada geese -- as in Make Way for Goslings (yet to be written) -- has decided to summer-over and poop copiously on our turf rather than flying on to Canada.

One non-violent antidote suggested by Google but summarily rejected by me was to spread powdered grape kool-aid mix (sic !) (stomach-ache stuff for geese) around the pond's periphery.

Another suggestion was to rent a border collie for the summer. Good grief....
A friend said she tried flying at them, flapping her poncho wings like a mega-alpha-goose, to no avail.

Other friends said that either some resident snapping turtles or a target coyote worked like a charm; the pond there is now free of the poop-bags (geese).

So we've followed suit and ordered a life-size foam rubber coyote by overnight mail to stand guard on the bank. Whether this wily "predator" with a dangerous-looking, flapping bandana around its neck will end up deterring and dislodging the messy geese or delighting them, is yet to be determined.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I sure hope your cousin didn't order it from the Acme Foam Animal Company. Very shoddy workmanship from what I hear.

coyote said...

I bet they stay put. That's what Canada Geese do best. And hey: everybody loves coyotes... and reasonable facsimiles.

Harmony said...

I somehow doubt that the lifeless, fluffy white cat we all witnessed dangling from your drooling jaws in the by-now infamous "bad, bad coyote" cam sequence has ANY love for coyotes...

coyote said...

You wound me to the very quick with your snide and scurrilous imputations, ma'am. And anyway, I loved it...