Fluffy

I live a mile from Vista, California. We own three dogs and three horses. Valencio is a Spanish speaking Mexican American who grows flowers on his five acre home across the country road from me. He uses a couple of acres of my land to grow sun flowers, and I enjoy seeing the green flower fields behind my house. Fluffy is a cute little black dog owned by Valencio. I remember frequently walking out to get my mail and being greeted by Fluffy who barked and yapped at me as if he might eat me up if I got too close to his house across the street. Valencio said, "I like this little dog. He always warns us when he hears someone come too close to our house especially at night."

At first I only saw Fluffy in his yard or out in the street. Then, Fluffy began following his master and the field workers into my yard. At first he was shy and wouldn't let me pet him. He chased around my yard playing with my larger dogs. I have an old black lab, a mixed German shepherd , and a golden retriever. At first my dogs chased Fluffy away, but he kept coming back wanting to play with the big dogs. Fluffy could scamper very fast and turn sharp corners. He dodged the other dogs and turned tails on them so that he would be in the chasing position. All the while he would be happily yapping away. I worried about him crossing the street to my place fearing a car might hit him.

Behind my property lies several hundred acres of land where twenty five years ago, I leased pasture land for horses. There is a constantly running stream that comes from Dr. King's small private lake. The land is rolling hills where many plants, wild birds and animals live. There are many dove, quail, rabbits, squirrels, rattlesnakes. Rare and endangered flowers and birds, and predators like, coyotes, and wild cats lived there.

Recently the land behind my place was annexed to the city of Oceanside. At that time the plan was to use the land for horse ranches not smaller than five acres. People from Los Angeles bought the ranch land, and the Oceanside planners changed the Zoning to allow housing tracts to be built close to where the property meets Mission Road which leads to Bonsall and Fallbrook. Eventually the ranch land was sold to the Marlborough Company who built hundreds of city type homes on small lots. Bridal trails run along in front of the homes. The builders planned to build more homes, but somehow the citizens and the city of Oceanside stopped them. The Marlborough Company plowed up all the vegetation. Rains came and caused so much soil erosion mud flowed into the stream and caused a private lake to be damaged. The owners sued Marlborough and stopped the house building project.

All the sage brush, flowers and grasses were mowed down. I still rode my horses back there, and I know every inch of it. The Marlborough Company had made the land look ugly by placing thousands of white sand bags all over the place to try to stop the erosion they caused. They dug big ugly holes surrounded by fences. The holes were to catch run off rain water in an effort to stop soil erosion. The water held in the holes was a breeding place for mosquitos. Many of the animals that lived on the land moved to my property to find food. The food chain had been broken. I had many new gopher and squirrel holes. It was getting dangerous for my horses to walk on my own pasture. Every day I saw little bunny rabbits trying to hide under my sheds. Once I found a dead rabbit in my cellar. It had jumped through a window and starved to death.

One of my neighbors felt sorry for the poor wild animals. She put bowls of dog food on the Marlborough property behind her house. Sometimes at night I listened to the coyotes. When they caught something to eat, they started barking and yapping.

Just after dawn my dogs were playing with the little black poodle named Fluffy. They chased each other in my yard and finally Fluffy ventured onto the Marlborough land to rest. Two coyotes appeared, and one of them picked up Fluffy by the back of his neck. Two of my dogs were watching, and the golden retriever became frightened and ran up to my house. The German shepherd named Butch charged the two coyotes, and the coyote dropped the little dog unharmed. Butch started trotting back toward my home when he noticed the other coyote grab Fluffy, and he started off toward their den. Butch charged again. This time he crashed into the coyote who let go of Fluffy. Fluffy was not injured , and the two friends trotted back to my house, and Fluffy went home. The next day I told Valencio what had happened to his dog. We spoke Spanish to help me learn the language.

Dr. Larry Gonzales is my friend and neighbor who lives behind Valencio. We rode our horses almost every day. We saw coyotes in the daytime. Many years ago it was unusual to see them out in the open. But they came out of hiding and barked or howled at us. When we came too close to their dens, they hid from us. I got a feeling the coyotes were hungry. They saw our dogs with us and perhaps hoped to lure one of them close enough to catch. Usually only one coyote showed himself to us. If one of our dogs were to run over to the hill or ditch where we had seen the coyotes, the dog would probably have been attacked.

One night as I lay in bed trying to get to sleep, I heard the sound of a small dog barking behind my house. He sounded like he was about five hundred feet away, and he sounded like Fluffy. Then I heard the sound of the little dog crying out in apparent pain as if he were being whipped. I heard the wild yapping of many coyotes. During their yapping I heard the dog crying for a little while. Then all was silent. I had a sick feeling of horror.

I got up and looked out the back window into the darkness. I couldn't see anything. There was nothing I could do anyway. I couldn't sleep. I went in the living room to watch and hear the Tonight Show on television. I hoped it would rest my mind from the sounds of the little dying dog.

I met Valencio as he finished his work in the fields. He said, "My little dog was eaten by the coyotes. I found what was left of his little carcass lying in my garden behind your house. I will miss him."