 Danger from hawks & owls?
This has always been worrisome to me, and it is one reason why I have no problem having the larger Yorkies, but I still wonder, just how large of an animal is a hawk or owl capable of picking up? I guess it depends on the size of the bird, but I know I read somewhere that they have been known to pick up dogs up to 10 lbs. Thats just hard to imagine! Willie weighs 20 lbs, lol, so I'm not too worried he would be potential prey, but Chloe is about 9 lbs, so I hate to even let her out this afternoon, since I noticed a Coopers Hawk perched up on my patio screen today, I think it was scoping out the little sparrows out there at the time. These things always start showing up as the weather gets cooler, for whatever reason, it draws them back into the city limits. They always seem to be around on cold or overcast days.
This also brings to mind another danger to those of us living in town, and like me, have wrongly assumed our pets are safe from wild animals. I know a family a few miles from me who had their pet Boxer torn up badly by a bobcat! Thankfully it survived, but it is a pretty large dog! The animal control said that they have had several reports of this happening. The bobcats hide in the trees and attack unsuspecting pets.
~Deb, Willie, Chloe~ |