Chihuahua's owner fended off coyote attack with rolled-up newspaper

Tucker is a senior citizen in dog years, and his diabetic condition has taken away his sight. But the 12-year-old Chihuahua proved to be tough as nails on Thursday when he survived an attack by not one, but two coyotes outside his home near Antioch, Illinois. “He is a survivor,” said Tucker’s owner, Dawn McCarty. “He’s like a cat with nine lives.”

But she added that the pre-dawn incident happened so quickly and unexpectedly that Tucker likely would not have survived if he hadn’t been tethered. “To see my little guy in the mouth of a coyote - it was terrifying,” McCarty said. “And I think of my neighbours who let their dogs out in the morning ... This is not a rural area. We back up to a park, and everybody thinks it’s safe.”



McCarty said she found out otherwise seconds after starting her morning routine. “I got up about 5 o’clock, let my dog out in the back yard, hooked him to his leash and went out my front door to get my newspaper,” she said. “All of a sudden, I hear him yelping, so I ran around to the back and there was this coyote who had him by the back leg.”

McCarty said she then made use of the only weapon in her possession. “I took my newspaper and kind of held it out like a sword, and I shooed it away - I beat the coyote away,” she said, 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.”

There's a news video here.