On a recent evening around 8:30, Bernice Hoffman, 85, took her Maltese dog, Sofina, to go potty near her patio on Ronda Sevilla in Laguna Woods Village. Hoffman was armed with a flashlight, an air horn, and she had the dog on a leash – a retractable one.
Still, she was caught unawares when a coyote suddenly appeared.
“The coyote came from the back of the building. The air horn did not deter it. It was total war between the coyote and myself,” she recalled.
It was a war that she lost. Hoffman, who uses a walker, said she was knocked down when Sofina pulled at her leash. She used the air horn, but no one came out to help.
Although the coyote dropped Sofina at some point, the dog’s harness released, and the coyote grabbed her again.
“In hindsight, I should have had her on a short leash,” Hoffman said.
Yet there was not much else she could do.
“We are a senior community. We don’t have the energy or the ability or speed to chase an animal. I could not save my little girl.”
Residents who walk their dogs in the Village have learned to be on the lookout for coyotes to avoid tragedies such as Hoffman’s. With concerns about coyotes growing in the Village – there have been a reported eight attacks on dogs in the past six months, five of them fatal – the Dog Club held a meeting Feb. 13 to dispel rumors and falsehoods and present facts about the beasts.
Around 50 people packed the Clubhouse 1 Art Room for a presentation by Justin Toguchi and Jim Beres, members of Animal Control for the Laguna Beach Police Department, which handles coyote issues in the Village.
The upshot of the presentation? Coyotes are here to stay; it is up to residents to use proper precautions to protect their dogs. (Cats should be kept indoors at all times, the two said.)
Village resident Debbie Accardo brought her two tiny Yorkies, Abby and Cupid, to the meeting.
“I had three encounters with coyotes, but they were just strolling around,” she said. “I have seen them in…
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