I live in the Northern VA suburbs, just 20 minutes outside of Washington, DC (traffic permitting). DH was walking our dogs one morning just before dawn and saw a cat being pursued by a coyote. We figure that explains a lot of the missing cat posters in our neighborhood.

DH was walking our dogs one morning just before dawn and saw a cat being pursued by a coyote

blinks

...did the Coyote have a stick of dynamite with ACME written on the side, by any chance?

Wait. Whuh? There are coyotes in the DC area?

I thought it was getting a little too predatory a few years ago when there was a bald eagle killing all the squirrels in front of the building where my office was. (Just about every morning, the eagle would be on the lawn, sitting on top of a newly-killed squirrel, while several other squirrels sat nearby, looking and trembling. It was kind of interesting, but a bit more of nature in action than I needed to see at 9 every morning.)

...did the Coyote have a stick of dynamite with ACME written on the side, by any chance?

No such luck. Then the cat could have simply dropped an anvil on him.

Wait. Whuh? There are coyotes in the DC area?

Yes. They've been sighted as close in as Falls Church, VA, where a coyote approached a person walking a small dog. The person scared the coyote away.

In a recent radio news story I heard, animal control experts were recommending that pets under 35 pounds not be left outside without direct supervision. Coyotes can run in excess of 40 mph and jump 8 foot fences.

That's ... incredibly freaky. I think I'd just assumed that coyotes were only in the southwest.

That's ... incredibly freaky. I think I'd just assumed that coyotes were only in the southwest.

I've read that their range covers the entire US now.

One walked into a restaurant in downtown Chicago last summer.

Aw, who's a cute widdle predator: [link]

My cat Bogey, was an indoor cat until we moved to this quite, residential neighborhood. Then I started letting him out once in a while--we have a six-foot privacy fence around the backyard. But there was a craxy cat lady down the street with a million cats that had the run of the place (her back door was always propped open and there were always at least three cats on her stoop). I suspect she had more than she could get adequate veterinary care for and Bogey would sometimes get into disagreements with these cats.

I suspect to this day that he picked up his feline leukemia from one of those cats. He didn't have it when we moved in because we had him tested for it yearly. After he started going out, he was infected and it was too late to do anything about it when we found out he had it.

Ozwald only goes out into the backyard when we're out. He doesn't seem interested in scaling the fence at all so I'm less worried. Also, craxy cat lady was evicted two years ago.

Deena, how did your babies get to be KIDS??? Oh, so adorable ones at that!

Glucose tablets work well

Yeah, but so do Tootsie Rolls, Caramels and any other easy-to-store sugary chewy candies, without the high cost of the glucose tablets.

Glucose tablets are one hell of a moneymaking scheme. "lets sell sugar to diabetics!"

Hard candies that can be crunched to speed the delivery like the lifesavers Hil mentioned work too. I have a tube of stark lozenges in my glove box. They'll keep for years...