Instinct Fails a Kitten in Coyote Country

My 9-month-old kitten has been gone for about three weeks now, and I miss him dreadfully. Blackie, my 12-year-old cat, a survivor of our wild hillside, misses him too. He looks out the window; he goes outside and peers through the perimeter fence to the wild hillside below. He smells the small pathway alongside the fence that the gardeners use, and the bushes alongside. Blackie knows more than I do.

Somehow, Blackie, who is an indoor/outdoor cat, has survived the dread coyote. I thought the little fellow was learning too. Some nights he’d peer through the opened door, wanting to go out--but his keen sense of smell told him differently.

And now he’s gone. A meal for the coyote whose pups had recently howled down the hillside.

My neighbor rescued the kitten from abandonment in a mall. She brought him to me, a 3-month-old healthy, bright-eyed little fellow, tucked into a soft round cloth bed. I instantly fell in love, and the responsibility of training him began that very night, when Blackie hissed at this new little creature. The little one hissed back, and then managed to jump up on the kitchen counter where I kept Blackie’s food. He was hungry.

Months went by; he grew. Though he climbed and ruined my door screen, I wouldn’t let him out. I felt he was just too young.

He settled into our way of living, eating, playing with Blackie and even at times sleeping with him. But his need to go out and learn his boundaries kept growing. Finally at about 7 months old, I reluctantly and cautiously let him go. His joy knew no bounds because he hid under bushes, climbed the trees, sat on the perimeter fence. He knew more about what was out there than I ever did. All this time, Blackie retreated to staying indoors. His outside nighttime prowling now seemed over.

Then, two nights into the new year, the younger cat’s need to go out seemed urgent, yet he was wary at the open door and carefully smelled all scents within his range before venturing out.

On this night, instinct failed him, and the yelping of the coyote pups on the hillside below our home failed to alert him.

The next morning when he didn’t come in, I knew his fate and my heart sank. The loss of my pet is still devastating.

While I don’t fault the coyote for finding his meal at our doorstep, neither do I fault Laguna Niguel for not ridding our hillside of coyotes to make it safe for resident pets. Some years ago, before cityhood, a group of us hilltoppers petitioned the Laguna Niguel council to remove these animals to a more remote region. They balked at the notion, but said they would give it consideration. It was a foolish petition on our part, and nothing came of it.

I don’t even fault myself for giving my pet a freedom he needed to be well-adjusted. We’ve had two cats that have been indoor/outdoor cats--one living for 17 years, and now Blackie for 12.

Still, my heart weeps at the kitten’s passing. I console myself that even though it was a short life, it was a happy one.