As everyone frantically scrambled to get their dogs back on the leash, Ray Martyniuk had a sinking feeling in his stomach when realizing Roger — his min-pin Chihuahua cross — was missing.
A few seconds before, Martyniuk and four of his dog-loving friends at the No. 3 and Dyke roads off-leash park, spotted a coyote ghosting past them, only 30 or so feet away.
With all their 11 pets now safely on-leash, including Martyniuk’s two other dogs, Roger’s fearful owner nervously began calling for him.
“(The coyote) was walking fast along the path near us, just in the grass,” said Martyniuk of the encounter last Thursday.
“He wasn’t going too fast, but he was having a good look at our dogs. Everybody went into a panic and started grabbing their dogs.
“I got two of mine, but (Roger) was gone. The coyote was quite far away by now and he ran behind some trees.”
At that point, Martyniuk said he whistled for Roger to come and the little dog darted out of the same trees.
However, in hot pursuit of Roger, was the coyote. “They were about 100 yards away,” recalled Martyniuk. “Roger is fast, but the coyote was gaining on him.
“We all stood up and were screaming and waving our hands like crazy to scare the coyote but he just kept coming.”
Martyniuk said Roger flashed past him with the coyote about 20 feet behind.
“(The coyote) stopped. But he didn’t seem scared at all,” added Martyniuk.
“He then turned and left. I’ve been going there for a couple of years and I’ve never seen a coyote, let alone one as brave as this.”
Martyniuk said there aren’t any notices up at the park warning about coyotes, so he and his dog-owning circle were down there this week, telling everybody to watch out.
The group also contacted the Stanley Park Ecology Society, which monitors the movements of urban wildlife in the region and posts warnings of coyote sightings.
The society told them they had acted correctly in leashing up their pets, but added the coyotes tend to hunt small rodents at night and are usually very fearful of humans.
Maintaining that fear of humans, said the society, is vital for their own survival.
The society advises people to make a “coyote shaker,” — a pop can filled with coins.
