Alabama Coyote Enters House, Kills Pet Cat

According to a recent article at Alabama Outdoor News, a bold coyote entered a house in Argo, AL and killed a pet cat inside. When a pet dog alerted the homeowner, he loaded a pistol and went to investigate, finally killing the trespassing canine.

About the only thing this guy did wrong, in my opinion, was that his pistol was not loaded prior to the event.

At 3:00 on the morning of June 3, 2019, Roland Collins was awoken by a loud noise from his basement. There’s a pet door down there for his pet cat and Labrador dog to use, so he apparently figured one of his pets had made the noise. As he was drifting back to sleep, he said, “the dog got up and ran to the top of the basement stairs and started growling. He had never done that before.”

So, he said, he retrieved a 380 ACP pistol from a drawer, shoved in a magazine, and chambered a round. Then he went downstairs into the basement.

‘I opened the door going to the basement and flipped on the light at the same time, and standing 6 feet in front of me was the coyote with our dead cat between his legs,’ he said. ‘There was blood everywhere.’

Collins said the coyote went ‘berserk’ when it saw him and made a dash for the doggy door.

‘He missed the doggy door, and it knocked him down,’ he said. ‘He then jumped on one of those small refrigerators and jumped on some shelves that were 7 1/2 feet off the ground. He turned the shelf over and fell in the middle of all the stuff. He then ran and tried to climb an 8-foot wall. He then ran into my workshop side of the basement, and when he raised his legs up, I shot out of instinct. He dropped dead and never moved.’

Collins said the whole ordeal lasted 10 seconds at the most.

‘I didn’t have time to be scared it happened so fast,’ he said. ‘But after it was over, I just stood there in my underwear shaking.

‘I am just thankful that my wife was away on a mission trip in Honduras. If she had heard all the racket and then the shot, it would have probably scared her to death.’

Adding to the chaotic aftermath was the strong aroma of wood waterproofer; his bullet had passed through the coyote and punctured a five-gallon can of the stuff.

Coyotes are a scourge and as Dad used to say, getting rid of one is “a good lick.”

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.