Friday, July 31, 2009

It was only a few months ago when an Echo Park dog owner named Mariel ended up in a fight with fellow dog owner in Elysian Park. This morning, Mariel and her two dogs found themselves in another tense Elysian Park encounter: with a coyote. Mariel has seen plenty of coyotes on walks through the park, but this was the first time a coyote ever gave chase. “I always thought I was safe because my dogs are big. I don’t think I’ve had an animal chase me before.”

Mariel said she and her two dogs were walking in the hills above the Montecillo de Leo Politi section of the park near Boylston Street when they were challenged by a barking coyote. She turned and ran. So did her dogs. “It chased us down the hill, barking. I didn’t know coyotes could bark,” she said. Mariel and her two dogs ran down to a parking lot, where a parks department worker with a large stick came to the rescue by waving off the angry coyote.

“He stopped the coyote in its tracks. They [the dogs] were terrified. It was pretty weird.”

It’s not clear if the coyote was rabid or protecting puppies, said Mariel. Perhaps it’s time Mariel and her dogs consider a walk around Echo Park Lake. But, then again, those geese are pretty aggressive, too.

Photo by Velocity of Sound

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