The caller was a bit miffed when we said there was nothing to be done about coyotes in her backyard and mildly outraged when told she should make certain Fido and Muffy where inside at night and not to leave their food on the patio.

"This is Seattle, we shouldn't have to have them around," she said rather stridently. "Why won't the city trap them or shoot them - or let us shoot them?"

The vision of a lot of folks with guns pointed at dog-like animals at night was terrifying.

The fact is coyotes are everywhere, in Seattle, in Los Angles, yes, even in Chicago.

Ohio State University studied urban coyotes in Chicago, with a metropolitan population of over 9 million.

"We couldn't find an area in Chicago where there weren't coyotes," said a researcher who estimated there are between several hundred and 2,000 coyotes living in that city.

Just a few weeks ago, a blog showed a photo from a motion-detection video camera of Buffy the cat puffed up and apparently growling at a coyote calmly walking through the scene.

There are no reports of coyotes in Ballard of late, but there was the recent big bruhaha over the coyote in Discovery Park, across the ship canal. There are coyotes in Ballard, we just haven't heard about them this year.

Coyotes are a North American animal. Males weigh up to 35 pounds and females five or six pounds lighter. They only howl to let other familiy groups know where their territory is.

They are mainly carivores, but will eat anything available. They like mice, rats, squirrels and rabbits. They also like berries and even watermelons.

They thrive in the city on garbage readily available everywhere.

A huge draw for them is pet food left outside and that adds to the danger for Fido and Muffy. If the coyote senses they are in competition for the food with the dog or cat, they may attack your pet - the chances are the doggie or kitty will lose.

Coyotes are credited with keeping the fast-growing Canada goose population down, and have been known to clear away road kill even on city streets.

They are nocturnal and not often seen in the daytime, but not always. There was the newpaper photographer in Bellevue a few years ago who snapped the shot of a sleek coyote snoozing peacefully on the hood of a car in a carport near downtown at 10 a.m. Hey, what's a fellow to do after a hard night hunting for food?

Some will think our tone is not serious enough for the situation, but every editor faces the "Great Coyote Sighting" scare each spring. It goes along with the first busy beach day or the first day of school vacation - annual rights of spring.

Keep small pets inside and keep their food off the outside patio. Keep your garbage tightly covered. Coyotes will not hunt the animals if they are not around, and they much prefer easier pickings, but a coyote has to eat, too, so keep temptation away.

Oh, and you can call Animal Control if you wish but they are not going to rush to your side with guns or traps. You can call a professional trapper to catch are relocate a coyote if you are willing to pay his bill, but we simply do not collect enough taxes to have the animal control man and woman power to catch the thousands of coyotes in our metropolitan midst.

- Jack Mayne