Hazmat and Coyotes

Hazmat.

First.  No.  This has nothing to do with my cooking.

As I was backing out of the garage, I noticed in the rear view mirror a police SUV directly across the street with all the flashing lights on.  As I pull parallel with him, he is getting out of his vehicle and signaling me to stop.  He came around to my window and asked me if that was my large metal briefcase sitting by the light pole that is between my driveway and the neighbor’s drive way.  “Ahhh, no.” was my reply, “But I did have a guy giving me a quote on sun screen today for the back patio and he did have a case”.  The cop pushes the button on the microphone that is hooked on his shoulder and says in his low tone serious cop voice “Put that on standby”.  I told the cop that I did have man’s cell phone number and would call to verify that it was his.  The cop says make it quick as the Hazmat is just on standby and they won’t standby long. 

I rush back into the house.  The guy had emailed me the quote.  Luckily, I had just printed it out otherwise it would have been time lost waiting for the computer to fire up.  I call – get voice mail.  As I’m walking out of the garage with the phone, I leave the message to call me quick as the cops are here and very briefly explained the situation.  Cop asked how sure I was that it was his metal case.  I was 70-80% sure.  I didn’t really look that close at it but I knew it was the aluminum type.  It’s the black front panel that was throwing me off.  Cop said if hazmat comes they evacuate people around a perimeter and foam down the case.  I changed that I was 95% sure and hit re-dial.  Voice-mail.  The cop turns and walks back towards his SUV talking into the shoulder microphone again. 

He moves the SUV so that it is on the same side of the street as me and the metal case but down one more house so he is sitting in front of second house down from mine.  Holie schmoe, has the dude called the hazmat team in?  I hit re-dial again, this time he answers.  Yes, it’s his.  I flagged the cop.  All is well.

Sun City West has volunteer deputies that work with the county sheriff.  They are retired cops from other cities now living in SCW.  It’s another way of keeping costs down yet having more patrols in the area than the county could provide.  This dude was the epitome of a southern officer of the law - short, lots of dun-lap (belly dun lapped over the belt), slight southern drawl, stands feet apart, thumbs in belt, never smiled until he was saying goodbye.   

Coyotes

The first coyote I saw was in early April at the duplex in Sun City.  Dad, Mom, and I watch one trot across the green-space in back.

My second sighting was also at the duplex when I was out for a walk.  I came up to an intersection, looked to my left and out he comes about a half a block down.  He never looked at me, just trotted out and headed in the opposite direction of me staying close to the houses and then cut back in between two other houses.

Third was at the new house in the back yard.  One came trotting from the east headed west through everyone’s back yard.  Maybe three seconds later, here comes another one, and another three seconds a third.  Oy. 

Those were all during daylight hours.  The first time I heard them in the middle of the night I thought it was a child crying.  Suddenly it was a bunch of sad sounding yelps and it all sounded like it was right in the neighbor’s back yard.

Couple weeks ago I heard them calling each other.  This was like somone say Woo as in Woo-Hoo but a real long Wooooooo.  One starts and then there is another and another and it starts to get spooky when the sound starts coming from all directions...like you’re surrounded.

By this time I’ve talked to people about them in general conversations and someone had said that they have two sounds used most often; a general communication between them (the Woooo) and an after a kill to keep others away.

I heard the after the kill last week.  A rain storm had moved through so I had gone out on the back patio with a glass of wine to watch the lightening in the distance and listen to the soft rain.  That was ruined by the sound a dog makes when it’s keeping someone or another dog away from their food dish.  And just that quick it was a couple others joining in the fight to what I assume was the attempt to snatch the kill for themselves.  That’s when I headed inside. 

Again, I thought it was just a house or two away.   At a whisper-ball demonstration coyotes somehow came up in conversation and I told them about the fight and how close they must have been.  There was an agreement that while they may sound 2 or 3 houses down, they really are more like 3 or 4 blocks away.  I’m 3 or 4 blocks away to the north and to the south of golf courses.  Coyotes tend to hang out around golf courses - shade and better meal choices.