Residents Report Roaming Coyote-Dog Hybrid: Have You Seen It?

For the past few weeks, Mary Alice Landry has seen what looks like a baby coyote on Timber Ridge Road in Middletown, near her home. 

Thinking there might be a chance it was rabid, Landry spoke to a police officer late last week who told her the animal control officer has been trying to catch what's thought to be a half-dog half-coyote.
  
"I keep seeing it alone during the day dashing in and out on the street by Timber Ridge in Middletown. I wonder if this is what happened to our Rafiki?" she posted on her Facebook page Friday evening. 

Her daughter Alyssa managed to get photographs of the canine trotting away from her home toward some construction, which you can see here.

Comments began coming into Landry's Facebook post: one from Gail who saw an adult coyote in the South Farms area near Maromas the week before in the middle of the day. She also mentioned a missing cat and wondered a coyote was responsible.

Gail, who also lives on Timber Ridge, told Landry she sees the female coyote all the time and even tried to catch her a few weeks ago. "She would start to approach me and something would spook her and she'd dart off, but not too far. She'd even give me a little wag."

"I've seen the most scraggly looking ones and ones that you have to look twice because they look like a small German Shepherd," Gail added. "Years ago (in Berlin), my daughter was on the computer in the den and called me in because there was a dog on our front porch looking in the window. It was a coyote, looking for some cats I think."

Maria said in Durham, she has seen "coyotdogs" in both the the day and night.

Chris, who lives in northern New England, said, "They are called coydogs — coyotes and dogs breed and produce this crossbreed, just another reason to get your animals neutered. They are a nunsiance up here in New Hampshire and Maine. There is a bounty for them."

Landry added, "I'm on Hawks Nest and I have seen her twice now and the only place I see her is running back and forth in the factory parking lot. It makes me very sad to see yet I wonder if she made her way into our neighborhood, as my cat went missing last month."

Trish Finnegan said, "I have also seen the pup. A couple of days ago, it was walking down Timber Ridge Road, approximately 20 yards in from Middle Street.  It trotted off into the woods. It’s very small and VERY skinny. Didn’t seem too fazed by the traffic."

Have you seen this "coyote-dog" near where you live? Tell us in the comments below.