Just watched one lope across the greenbelt along Serrano Creek near R…

Thao Anderson

Jul 1, 2026, 11:23 PM

James, welcome, and honestly your post sounds a lot like me a year ago. I've got a small dog too, so I hear the Miso worry. What actually made a difference for me wasn't one trick but changing my timing off that dawn/dusk window and keeping her leashed short and close, never letting her roam ahead near the brush. I still get nervous, and I'm not sure hazing does much solo, but a shorter leash and a different route genuinely changed how those mornings feel. Curious what others near Serrano do about the bus-stop stretch, because that's the piece I'd want answers on too.

Yasmin Vargas

Jul 1, 2026, 11:34 PM

Thanks James. That's the same stretch behind our place and honestly they're out there earlier and earlier now. Appreciate the heads up, we keep the kids off the greenbelt after 6 these days.

Sakura Park

Jul 1, 2026, 11:46 PM

Saw one there Sunday too, right by the little footbridge. Leashed up and turned around. Not scared exactly but I don't love how comfortable they've gotten.

Joon Jones

Jul 2, 2026, 12:08 AM

Comfortable is the word. When they stop caring that a person is standing there that is NOT normal and everyone treats it like it's cute. It's a problem waiting to happen.

Andre Khan

Jul 2, 2026, 12:24 AM

Joon it is completely normal. A coyote calmly crossing a greenbelt at dusk toward a wash is a coyote doing exactly what it's supposed to do. It ignored James. That's the good outcome, not the scary one.

Gabriela Rios

Jul 2, 2026, 12:41 AM

Agreed. James handled it perfectly, leash on, gave it room, moved along. That's the whole playbook right there. Nobody needs to panic over an animal minding its own business.

Quang Zhang

Jul 2, 2026, 12:56 AM

Easy to say from wherever you two are sitting. Some of us have watched these things pace a back fence at 2pm. Give it room, sure, until it decides your little dog is dinner.

Jian Vargas

Jul 2, 2026, 1:11 AM

This. It's always fine until it isn't. We need the city to actually trap the ones denning back by Serrano Creek instead of handing out pamphlets about shaker cans.

Dae Liu

Jul 2, 2026, 1:29 AM

Trap and do what, Jian? You know they don't relocate them right? Trapping means killing. Say what you actually mean.

Jian Vargas

Jul 2, 2026, 1:45 AM

Fine. Remove them. If it's a healthy adult losing all fear of people near a kids' greenbelt, yes, I want it gone. I'm not going to pretend a coyote matters more than a child.

Sana Thomas

Jul 2, 2026, 2:02 AM

Nobody said it matters more than a child. That's a garbage way to argue and you know it. One healthy coyote walking across a field is not stalking your kids, Jian.

Elena Reddy

Jul 2, 2026, 2:19 AM

Sana you can be as zen as you want. When it's YOUR pet gone you'll change your tune real fast. Until then it's all 'coexist' and lectures.

Soo Nguyen

Jul 2, 2026, 2:41 AM

Genuine question because I'm new to this trail, is 6:40pm early for them to be out or is that just normal this time of year? Trying to figure out when to walk my dog.

Hoang Jones

Jul 2, 2026, 2:56 AM

Soo it's normal, especially summer. They shift active hours with the heat and dusk is prime. Dawn and dusk are your busy windows on Serrano Creek.

Nikhil Sato

Jul 2, 2026, 3:13 AM

Yeah 6:40 isn't unusual at all. Report it on the Coyote Cacher site if you want it logged, but a healthy one crossing a wash is pretty routine out here.

Joon Jones

Jul 2, 2026, 3:27 AM

Routine is exactly the problem. We've all decided this is 'routine' and now they own the greenbelt after 5. When did we agree to that?

Linh Taylor

Jul 2, 2026, 3:47 AM

We didn't agree to anything Joon, they were here before the greenbelt was a greenbelt. That wash predates every one of our houses. We built into their corridor and now act shocked.

Eun Chen

Jul 2, 2026, 4:05 AM

Oh here we go with the 'they were here first.' Every single thread. So were rattlesnakes, we still don't let them nest by the playground. Being here first isn't a free pass.

Aaliyah Adeyemi

Jul 2, 2026, 4:17 AM

A coyote crossing a field is not a rattlesnake in a sandbox and you know the difference, Eun. The false equivalence gets trotted out every time and it's exhausting.

Daniel King

Jul 2, 2026, 4:40 AM

What's exhausting is being told to feel bad for being cautious. I have a 12 pound dog. I'm not going to apologize for wanting these things kept away from where my kid plays.

Curtis Taylor

Jul 2, 2026, 4:56 AM

Nobody's telling you not to be cautious Daniel. Leash the dog, walk him at midday, haze anything that gets close. That's caution. Demanding the city kill them is not caution, it's a different thing entirely.

Marcus White

Jul 2, 2026, 5:08 AM

'Haze them.' I've clapped and yelled at one on Bonita and it just looked at me. The hazing advice stopped working years ago because nobody enforces the feeding rules. That's the real failure.

Ying Smith

Jul 2, 2026, 5:28 AM

Marcus that's actually a fair point buried in there. The reason they lost their fear is people feeding them, leaving pet food and trash out. Fix the food and you fix the boldness. Killing does nothing, another one moves into the territory in weeks.

Amit Roberts

Jul 2, 2026, 5:44 AM

So your solution is 'wait for the neighbors to stop leaving trash out' which will NEVER happen. Meanwhile my grandkids can't walk to the park. Great plan Ying.

Trang Farahani

Jul 2, 2026, 6:02 AM

I'm genuinely torn reading this. I don't want anything killed but I also had one follow me and my lab about 40 feet on Rancho trail last month and it rattled me. Both things are true. Can we not act like caring means you're stupid?

Youssef Kaur

Jul 2, 2026, 6:18 AM

Trang thank you, that's where a lot of us are. A follow is unnerving. It's also usually escorting behavior near a den, not a hunt. Learning that helped me. I'm worried AND I don't want a kill program. Those aren't opposites.

Andre Khan

Jul 2, 2026, 6:36 AM

Exactly Youssef. The escort thing is real, especially pup season right now. You were probably near a den. Turn, face it, get big, back away. You did nothing wrong and neither did it.

Daniela Gonzalez

Jul 2, 2026, 6:54 AM

Every time one of you explains away a follow as 'escorting' you make it easier for the next person to get hurt. You're the reason people let their guard down. I mean it.

Maria Hernandez

Jul 2, 2026, 7:12 AM

Daniela that is a wild thing to say. Educating people about actual coyote behavior is the OPPOSITE of getting them hurt. Fear doesn't keep anyone safe, information does.

Elena Reddy

Jul 2, 2026, 7:28 AM

'Information does.' Tell that to my cat.

Elena Reddy

Jul 2, 2026, 7:42 AM

Sorry. I need to say this. We lost Mango three weeks ago on our own patio in Lake Forest, off Rancho. He was an indoor cat that slipped out for ten minutes. So when I read forty comments of people calling us hysterical for wanting these things controlled, it guts me. I'm not making up a hypothetical. I'm cleaning his bowl I can't throw out yet.

Gabriela Rios

Jul 2, 2026, 7:58 AM

Elena I'm so sorry. Truly. That's an awful loss and nobody here should be dismissing it. I hope you know that.

Curtis Taylor

Jul 2, 2026, 8:20 AM

Elena that's heartbreaking, I'm sorry. And I'll say it plainly to everyone: keep your cats inside. If you love them, indoors, full stop. That's not me scoring a point, that's the one thing that actually saves them.

Ying Sato

Jul 2, 2026, 8:36 AM

So sorry Elena. Losing a pet that way is real grief and it deserves better than being turned into ammo by both sides. Sitting with you on this one.

Sakura Park

Jul 2, 2026, 8:49 AM

That's devastating Elena. I think this is why the thread gets so heated, everyone's scared underneath it. I don't know the right answer but I know I'm hugging my dog right now.

Eun Chen

Jul 2, 2026, 9:10 AM

And THIS is what the coexistence crowd waves away every single time until it's someone's Mango. Maybe now a few of you will get it.

Curtis Kapoor

Jul 2, 2026, 9:22 AM

Eun don't. Do not use her cat to win an argument three minutes after she poured her heart out. That's exactly the thing that makes these threads unbearable. Grief isn't your debate prop.

Aaliyah Adeyemi

Jul 2, 2026, 9:45 AM

Thank you Curtis. Elena I'm genuinely sorry about Mango, and I hope it's clear that keeping cats in and securing food is what protects them, not a trapping program that empties one territory so a new coyote fills it by fall.

Quang Zhang

Jul 2, 2026, 9:59 AM

See, even now, you can't just say sorry and stop. You have to tack on the lecture about trapping cycles. Read the room, Aaliyah.

Aaliyah Adeyemi

Jul 2, 2026, 10:16 AM

I did say sorry, Quang. I said it first. I'm allowed to also say the thing that keeps the next cat alive. Those aren't in conflict no matter how much you want them to be.

Linh Kaur

Jul 2, 2026, 10:35 AM

We literally have this same fight every single week and it always lands in the same place, control-first people want the city to fix it with traps, coexistence people want the neighbors to fix it with lids and leashes. Both of you are describing the same tired thread from a different chair.

Aaron Park

Jul 2, 2026, 10:47 AM

Linh's not wrong lol. I've read this exact argument four times this spring. Different coyote, same 200 comments.

Steph Kowalski

Jul 2, 2026, 11:04 AM

Fine, laugh. Some of us will keep pushing the city and the HOA to actually DO something instead of philosophizing on a forum. Call it a broken record, I call it not giving up.

Pooja Singh

Jul 2, 2026, 11:22 AM

Honest middle-ground question, has anyone actually gotten a response from the city or their HOA on the trash enclosures by Serrano Creek? Feels like that's the one thing everyone here half-agrees on and nobody's chasing it.

Meera Park

Jul 2, 2026, 11:38 AM

Pooja yes, our HOA in Aliso finally added locking lids after enough of us emailed with photos and Coyote Cacher report numbers. It's slow and boring and it works better than any trap ever did. That's where the energy should go.

Vahe Guerrero

Jul 2, 2026, 12:00 PM

Okay that's actually useful. I'll take 'email the HOA with report numbers' over another forty rounds of who loves coyotes more. Logging tonight's sighting now.

Soo Nguyen

Jul 2, 2026, 12:13 PM

Well I got my actual question answered and about six arguments I didn't ask for, so, thanks all. Walking the dog at noon and reporting on the Cacher. James, appreciate you starting it, sorry it turned into the weekly cage match.