Coyote sneaks up on girls playing in backyard

Two 10-year-old girls were startled by a coyote that apparently sneaked up on them while they were playing in a backyard. One girl ran and the other climbed a tree. They were even more startled when the coyote briefly chased one girl, then sniffed around the base of the tree before ambling off into the nearby woods. No one was hurt, but the girls were shaken up. "It was pretty scary for them," said Janet Sahni, one girl's mother. "I get it that we live with them, that we coexist and share space. But it seems like an incident that could have turned out worse." Sahni's daughter, Juliana, was playing in the backyard of their home in the Westlake neighborhood, with her friend, Sarah May-Varas, around 5 p.m. Friday. They were "giving a pine tree a haircut" with a pair of scissors when they heard rustling in the greenspace adjacent to their yard. "When Juliana turned around, a coyote was standing only about two feet away," Sahni said. "So she ran toward the house -- and he chased her for about five feet."...read more