Coyote Attacks Chihuahua, Owner Saves Pet With Newspaper

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A nearly blind, diabetic 12-year-old Chihuahua was about to become a coyote's dinner until his owner intervened.

Antioch, Ill. resident Dawn McCarty was retrieving her newspaper when she heard her pet Chihuahua, Tucker, yelping. Immediately, McCarty rushed to the back yard with the paper in hand, reports NBC Chicago.

What she saw was the tiny leg of her Chihuahua in the mouth of a coyote.

“I took my newspaper and kind of held it out like a sword, and I shooed it away — I beat the coyote away,” she told the Sun-Times, adding that she then saw a second coyote standing within a few feet. “They were big — bigger than a German shepherd. They both took off when I started yelling and swinging the paper.”

McCarty told the paper it was not the first time she's seen coyotes in her area--even in broad daylight.

In October, ABC News reported of coyotes on the rise in urban settings, particularly in metro Chicago. "There's plenty to eat in easily accessible garbage cans, not to mention the occasional stray cat, and there are no hunters or trappers," said the report. Now, there are more than 1,000 coyotes in the metropolitan area.

The attack on McCarty's pet is one of several reported in the Chicagoland area recently. Last month, a Winfield, Ill. boy saw his pet Yorkie carried off by coyotes, while a Wheaton, Ill., dog was found dead from a coyote attack.