The Hunted and The Hunter

I woke early Saturday morning in anticipation of some good garage sale hunting. Because of my two recent coyote encounters, I am much more cautions when walking my dog when it is still dark outside. This morning we were about 20 yards from my front door and I just happened to glance behind us. A coyote was coming towards us at a fast trot. I made myself look big, I yelled and I had pepper spray ready. The coyote paused about 10 yards away then started to advance again. My dog started to lunge which only caused her leash to wrap around my legs. Finally a car came down the street and the coyote casually walked away.

We went back inside and called the police. They informed me that an earlier report in the area described a pack of three coyotes. Later that day I bought pepper spray that will stop a bear. I live in a gigantic urban city and am not accustomed to being hunted by predatory wildlife but I am becoming more prepared.

Things I've learned about urban coyotes: they will approach large dogs as prey, they are not scared of humans, they will approach downwind so be aware of your surroundings and a single coyote will try to lure an animal into a trap situation where the pack can attack.

Well so much for being the Hunted.

We did have some good treasure hunting later. My favorite find was this engraved silver tray. On the back it reads: "To Lyn, From your friends at Mattel, 11/21/75". I love that this is a bit of Mattel history. 1975 was the same year that the original founders, Elliot and Ruth Handler had to resign from Mattel.

My other favorite find was sheer serendipity. We were at a garage sale when the seller asked if I was interested in any Japanese American memorabilia from the World War II Japanese Internment Camps. I have done some genealogy research on my family so I knew where they were interred. It turned out that the seller had a large batch of propaganda photos showing how "happy" the Americans of Japanese descent were while being interred in these Camps. The photos all have captions neatly typed on the back so I have a lot of reading to study up on. I feel like I've bought a bit of my family's history today.

Manzanar Relocation Center - Manzanar, CA, 5/30/1942

Colorado River Relocation Center - Poston, AZ, 12/31/1942

 Jerome Relocation Center - Denson, AR, 11/18/1942

On a lighter note, we found this vintage cake stand and cloche that I will use to decorate for the holidays. I found the vintage bottlebrush trees and mercury glass beads from previous sales here and here.

We also picked up a sweet Christmas hankie just in time to use for a bit of holiday decorating.

I think we did very well on our treasure hunt. I just hope we don't continue to be the hunted.

This is linked to:
A Very Cherry World, Brambleberry Cottage, Coastal Charm, Creating a House of Grace, Her Library Adventures, Hey What's for Dinner Mom?, Mod Vintage Life, Savvy Southern Style, The Colorado Lady and Very Merry Vintage Style