The Coyote Hit Man.

Our neighbors went into Houston today to visit friends there. On the way back, they stopped in at the Sporting Goods store to look at shotguns. Not only did they look, but they bought one. The neighbor is ready to aim that thing at the next coyote he sees.

And he may not have to wait too much longer. One of our other neighbors lost his last two chickens in two days. When we first moved here, he had 16 chickens. The number slowly dwindled...... the last two were taken either by hawks or by coyotes within the last couple of days.

While our neighbor was at the store looking at the shotguns, he got to talking with one of the sales people there. He told them about the chickens, the coyotes, the hawks. Turns out that the salesperson is a "Professional Coyote Hunter." Pardon me? Is there really such a thing?

This man will go to your property armed with his trusty shotgun and his collection of coyote-calling contraptions. He can flush a coyote out of the woods with a crying-rabbit call, or a chicken-clucking sound, or a baby kitten meowing-mechanism. For anything a coyote would eat, this man can replicate their sounds. There is no charge for his services... he just comes to your property, does all the calling-out he can to attract the coyotes around, and he shoots them. He will either take away the dead coyote, or skin it for you. Pardon me? What would I do with a coyote skin?

Our neighbor who bought the shotgun told us that if we saw the coyote again, we should call him and he'll come driving down his hill to ours, and he will aim and shoot. "Of course, after we kill it, we'll have to bury it." Pardon me? Bury it? Where?

He also suggested that maybe my husband and I, along with his wife, would like to take some lessons on the proper use of a shotgun. The shotgun has just one chamber, for one shell. "It's safer for everyone that way," he said. What if we miss with the first shot? Can we re-load that thing before the coyote gets too far away? "Who says we're going to miss?" said the neighbor.

I wonder what coyote-killing does to one's karma?