I live on the north side of Houston Texas, in a subdivision that borders a high line and then some woods. A few years ago people started hearing and occasionally seeing coyotes in the woods. Over the years they were spotted and heard more often and closer. A couple years ago you could look out across the high line right of way and see up to five coyotes every evening. Next they were spotted in the neighborhood more and more often and pets started disappearing. Finally, if you payed attention you could see them in the neighborhood quite frequntly. People got used to watching them and then a few people started feeding them. My house is on the edge of the high line right of way and I could seen them in my yard and the vacant lot next to us very regularly. Finally, both of my next door neighbors cats disappeared and another neighbor let her little min pin dog out for a couple of minutes early in the morning and a coyote grabbed it. We called animal control and they set traps, but said there wasn't much chance of catching them in a trap (they were right - the traps failed). We have two small dogs and I became very concerned as I watched the cototes sniff around our fence at night on several occassions. Last fall, I finally had enough and purchased a crossbow. I put dog food in the vacant lot next door (the high line area and woods are behind this area so there was no problems if a shot went high). It took a few weeks, but I finally killed all but one of the five coyotes and the one that remained left our area. All of this while sitting in a chair on my front porch 20 yards from the bait. I didn't like shooting them and probably wouldn't of had to do if the neighbors hadn't started feeding them and encouraging them to come into the neighborhood.
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