It’s possible. I didn’t see any tracks. We also have a new black Persian-type kitteh out and about, so I’m not 100% sure. Jane went out and heard a furious scramble of something large or at least noisy getting over the back fence, where the garage hides it.

I went out and took a cannister of black pepper out and about the pond. We don’t have any coyote urine in stock. Hope this solves it. Meanwhile the pump had blown its hose out again, and I put it back, which requires some gymnastics.

And the new sandals just paid for themselves: while applying the pepper to the pond rim, I reached too far, put my foot wrong at the top of the berm, caught-balance, turned, and had to take a few downhill running steps over the basalt rock rim and onto the concrete, where I fetched up against a patio chair, still standing. My balance has been critically, dangerously lousy for a couple of years, one reason I’m not on the ice, and by golly, with these sandals, I’m rusty at a run like that, but I didn’t fall on the soft dirt or the jagged basalt or face-plant down on the concrete patio. I was surprised all the way down that I was still on my feet.