weird animal sighting (New York, York: house, live in, suburban)

[jojoboulette]

My husband and I saw an animal in our back yard this evening, and we're not sure what it was. It looked almost like a mix of fox/coyote/domestic dog.

My husband thought it was a fox, but no way was it a fox. The coat was not red enough and the legs weren't short enough. And overall, the animal was too big.

It looked like a small to medium sized dog. Very long tail. Not super thick like a coyote, but covered in fur. Somewhat thick coat that was a mix of red and grey. Reddish fur underneath and the top fur was more grey. Paws did seem to be darker, much like a fox. Head/ears looked like a cross between coyote and fox.

It seemed sort of upset, I thought maybe it had been chased by our neighbors dog, but as I was leaving later this evening, I noticed that one of the many bunnies that like to hang around our house looked very roughed up, with what looked like teeth or claw marks that went down to the skin. Pretty sure the animal had been going after the rabbit.

The first thing I thought when I saw it was 'wild dog'. It had that 'half/mixed breed + wild' look about it that I've seen in photos of wild dogs.

Anyone out there seen anything like this in Northern WC? I googled 'wild dogs Westchester County New York' but nothing comes up.

[Peppin0]

Maybe its a chupacabra

[Dockside]

Might have been a coydog- Coydog - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We live in southern Westchester near a couple small reservoirs and have been seeing more of these things lately than pure coyotes. And they do like rabbit for supper...and your cat.

[jojoboulette]

Originally Posted by Pinuzzo

Maybe its a chupacabra

Thanks for your concern. There are small children -- including my own -- here.

[jojoboulette]

Originally Posted by Dockside

Might have been a coydog- Coydog - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We live in southern Westchester near a couple small reservoirs and have been seeing more of these things lately than pure coyotes. And they do like rabbit for supper...and your cat.

Our cats are indoor, fortunately. I'm concerned about my daughter and my neighbor's children some of whom are still pretty young.

Do you think I should report what I saw? And to whom?

[gk90]

Here's one page that says to report it to the police dept.:
Coyotes in Westchester County, New York

This page says to contact NY DEC
The New York Suburban Coyote Study but their DEC link is broken

Here's a couple of live DEC links
Coyote Conflicts - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation
http://www.dec.ny.gov/about/558.html#region3

Good luck, with small pets and kids around I would be concerned too!

[jojoboulette]

Thanks, gk90. I read through the links, the risk of an attack is low, but I plan to be cautious all the same.

In case anyone else is interested in this thread, what I saw strongly resembled this:
http://www.patfitzphotos.com/Photos/Animals/COYDOG.html

I think it was a coydog. Definitely not pure coyote, but some sort of mix.

[jojoboulette]

Here's a pic of what we saw:

[ponytrekker]

Direwolf. JK. That is a fox.

[jojoboulette]

Originally Posted by ponytrekker

Direwolf. JK. That is a fox.

Nope, it wasn't a fox. I agree that it looks like a fox in the photo, but it's a very bad photo, taken from inside. I've seen plenty of foxes, and what we saw was absolutely not a fox, neither a gray or a red one.

It was a coydog, it looked almost exactly like the photo in the link above my photo.

But thanks for the sarcasm.