Another scare means more gray hair

Yesterday morning I heard a distressed clucking and looked out the window only to see a coyote jumping over the wall to my backyard as if the wall itself didn't exist. In the entire time we've lived here, we've certainly had our fair share of coyote encounters, but we have NEVER had one in our backyard. Between the thick hedges that line the wall, the trees that block the fence, and our naive assumption they would have no reason to come in, this was a shock. More importantly, I was out the door in 5 seconds and Ninja was nowhere to be found. Not a feather. As you can imagine, I was distraught. We finally managed to lure her into what we presumed was a safe space, and this happens....

Well, I should've trusted that our girl knows what she's doing when it comes to fending for herself. By 1 pm, she was happily strutting around, ruining my gardening attempts with all the aplomb of the diva she is. Since she was back, I looked at the one place that would be a chink in the chainlink, the area near our wall that the coyote used as her exit point. Fortunately I had some grids scavenged from a store closing. I was planning on using them for trellises and, like so many of my projects, hadn't managed to pull that together yet. Quickly we zip tied them to the fence and have created what we hope is an effective barrier to marauding coyotes. 

Meanwhile, Ninja seems to be getting a bit more relaxed around us, as she should be getting the idea that we ignore her and she can ignore us. I've taken to simply sitting in a chair and letting her roam around. She is still very cautious and yet curious. She'll even come closer to get a look at what I'm doing (just sitting there) and then go about her business. Though I wish we could figure out where she goes to roost at night and get her to the point where she will let us make sure of her safety, that girl's gonna do what that girl's gonna do.

Ninja doing her let's-mess-everything-up dance. (Sorry the quality is so bad)!