Woman left confused after an entitled stranger tells her to put a leash on a wild coyote

It is not strange that people confuse dogs with coyotes or foxes from a distance. But some people are way too confident with their assumptions and even charge at strangers, telling them to leash their dogs. u/CherylHeuton, who works in Caltech in Pasadena, California, shared her encounter with a coyote and an entitled stranger on Reddit. She was on her usual evening walk around the Caltech campus with earbuds in when a man stepped in front of her and started yelling.

The man told her to take her earbuds out and started talking to her aggressively. "He said, in an angry tone, 'You can't have your dog off leash here. Put a leash on your dog!' I said, very calmly, 'I don't have a dog.' The man gave this guffaw of disbelief and gestured at something behind me. He said, 'Do you have a leash with you? I don't see a leash. You can't walk a dog here off-leash,'" the post elaborated. But there was the plot twist neither did she own a dog nor was the man pointing at a dog behind her.

"By this time, I had a good idea of what was going on. I walk at Caltech all the time. I see certain animals pretty often. I turned to look and yes, it was just what I thought," the post continued. She informed the man that it was not a dog but a wild coyote. "For a long second, the man stared at me. Then he stared at the coyote. Then he made a kind of 'Huh' noise. He turned around and started half-walking, half-running away. From me and the coyote. I almost called after him never run from a wild predator.' But I didn't," the post concluded. The woman also added an Instagram link to the image of the coyote behind her.

The woman added in the comment that if one can look closely at the online groups in Pasadena, it becomes increasingly evident that many people are ill-informed about coyotes in the area. "Whenever someone posts about a bobcat sighting, a few people respond with hysterical fear. People also overestimate the size and weight of coyotes. Many longtime locals are pretty chill about wildlife," the comment read. "I once saw a bear in our neighborhood, Bungalow Heaven. When I posted about it, a bunch of people responded that it was probably just the bear that lives at the Altadena Country Club."

People on the platform shared their unique encounters with wild creatures and shamed the neighbor for his rude behavior. u/SessionDirect3114 joked, "Not all people have furry friends, Ken. But I honestly don't blame you for assuming, but that was just being rude nonetheless." u/EvulRabbit added, "To be fair. I just met an off-leash dog that looked like a cross between a coyote and a wolf. The first thing it did when it saw me was splash across the river (3 feet of water) to jump on me. Its head came up to my own and I am 5'8."

u/Necessary_Ground_122 commented, "Wow, I'm honestly surprised that people don't know about coyotes. I've seen them in many neighborhoods around town and down in San Marino as well. Always cool to see, always best to give them space and caution." u/NoKatyDidnt remarked, "I'm even surprised and I live in PA. We usually see foxes, but there are actually a lot of coyotes that frequent housing developments at night. My area had a ton of development all at once and the people who buy houses in new neighborhoods act like selfish crybabies about the wildlife. Get this straight, Karen, you invaded their space, not the other way around."