[Skinny Shooter]

http://www.readingeagle.com/re/news/1575531.asp

Couple tell of battle against coyote
“It was scary,” says a Lower Heidelberg Township man who eventually shot and killed the rabid animal.

By Jason A. Kahl
Reading Eagle

A rabid coyote terrorized a Lower Heidelberg Township couple attacking one of their dogs and trying to break into their house before homeowner Craig S. Luckenbill killed it with a shotgun.
Luckenbill said his wife, Jenny, played a key role in the battle, trapping the coyote by slamming the front door on its neck as it snarled and tried to force its way into the house on Brownsville Road near Blue Marsh Lake.

The couple's two Labrador retrievers, Annie and Cali, both fought with the coyote, trying to protect the Luckenbills.

“It was scary,” Craig Luckenbill said Thursday about the Sept. 21 encounter.

The 40-pound male coyote was the first ever to test positive for rabies in Pennsylvania, according to the state Game Commission.

Luckenbill, 43, said it was a typical morning: It was about 7:30, he had just let the dogs out and was sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee.

“One of the dogs (Annie) came back into the house when I heard the other dog barking like crazy and I knew something was wrong,” Luckenbill said. “I went outside and looked at the shrubs near the patio and saw it was a coyote and they were fighting.”

Luckenbill tried to pull his dog away from the coyote, but the coyote kept coming after him and the dog.

“When the coyote tried to come at me, twice the dog got between me and the coyote to protect me and they got at it again,” Luckenbill said. “My wife was standing in the doorway screaming and I called the dog and we got back into the house.”

The coyote was close behind and was stopped at the front door by Luckenbill's wife, who struggled to keep the door closed on the coyote's neck.

“When it tried to come into the house, my other dog Annie got involved to protect my wife,” Luckenbill said.

As Luckenbill got his 12-gauge shotgun, his wife managed to close the door. The coyote didn't give up, biting at the door and glass and causing damage to the front of the house.

The coyote was in the front yard when Luckenbill went out and killed it with one shotgun blast.

“I'm a hunter but I've never seen anything like that,” he said.

Both dogs, which already had been immunized for rabies, received booster shots after the attack.

The Luckenbills knew there were coyotes in the neighborhood. They had seen and heard them in the fields, but never saw one so close to their house.

“It makes you more cautious,” Luckenbill said. “It put fear into us. If there was one here, there could be another rabid one.”

Luckenbill said the dogs are not going outside unattended anymore.

Katherine Warner, a secretary for the Army Corps of Engineers, which manages nearby Blue Marsh Lake, said she has seen coyotes for at least 10 years in that area but knew of no attacks.

“We haven't had a problem, but there's been coyotes here for years,” Warner said.

Sounds like quite a tussle.
Fortunately they are ok.
Imagine if their dogs hadn't been there. He and maybe she would be getting rabies shots.