We fought the coyotes and the coyotes won.....

[JayinMN]

Yesterday was my birthday and my parents invited me over for supper. I was early so I took my dogs for a walk behind their house, waiting till they got home from work. There is a dirt road that heads back to a sand pit that I decided to take and about a 1/4 mile in my dog Ace goes off into the woods. This is not uncommon but he comes out in a minute or two so I kept walking with my other dog. After a couple minutes I stopped and started yelling for him and he never came back out of the woods. I figured something was up so I turned around, put Molly on a leash and started walking back. Then I started to hear some barking but it wasn't Ace's barks. It was coyotes yipping so I yelled his name and then I heard fighting start. This is on the mine dumps so its full of steep hills and ravines and I take off into the woods towards the sound of fighting. I can't pin point it because of the echoing and the laying of the terrain. I got fairly close and could hear them in the bottom of the ravine and yelling made it stop. The coyotes start barking again and I am calling for Ace but he is not coming. I go to wipe my brow off of sweat and my hand is covered in blood so I knew I had a cut somewhere. I walked the ravines for about 30 minutes calling for my dog with no response from him and figured he may be dead at that this point. Its after 5:30 so I know my mom should be home from work and I called to tell her to go drive the roads and check were I am parked to see if he ran back to the car. I looked for a few more minutes and couldn't fine any signs of him so headed back out to the main road to leave Molly with my mom. That way I could go back looking for him. Right before I got to my car I could see a wet set of dog tracks cross the sandpit road so I figured he had to have went back to the car. My mom said as soon as she got there she called his name and he came out of the woods covered in mud. I looked him over and through the mud I could see one 6-7 inch long tear and puncture marks. He ended up having both back legs bit up pretty bad and a few punctures on his shoulders and abdomen. I punctured my eyelid on a stick or something so we both had to go to the ER. Took 2 doctors and a specialist to figure out what to do with me and I ended up four stitches. Ace has over 30. Not surprisingly the vet got Ace done before me and she had 10x the work to do. Funny thing is, I had Molly at the vets in the morning for a huge hematoma on her side and on Tuesday she was there for a infection in her foot. Three trips in one week! I could tell there were at least two yotes and I have a feeling they may have been protecting pups or a den site. I might go back looking for them with a camera and no dogs. I was heading to shoot some bank swallows but never made it that far.

My traumatic wound, four little stitches..... haha

[GFNER]

Jay glad to hear your dog survived, he looks like he can take care of himself... who's to say he lost. I'd have titled your post "You should see the other guy!"

Glad he's alright.

[finnbay]

Glad to hear both you and your pup made it! You never know what you're going to come across out in the woods!

Happy Birthday!

[Steve Foss]

Close call, Jason. Glad it turned out OK!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Ouch.. hope you and the dog have a quick recovery.

[dockothebay]

Yikes - memorable birthday! Hope you and Ace are recovering quickly.

[EBass]

Holy! - glad everyone will be OK

[Finlander]

I'd be packin a gun the next time you go there to protect yourself if I was you!