Wily coyote sneaks quick dip in Ottawa woman's pool

It was about 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning when Nicole Van De Wolfshaar heard a racket outside her Glabar Park home.

Having been without power since a major storm swept through Ottawa last Saturday, Van De Wolfshaar was boiling water on her barbecue to make a cup of coffee.

"You know when there's a predator around the neighbourhood, the crows always make a huge racket?" she said. "I went outsideto see what was in the backyard."

She didn't see anything right away, but then walked over to her pool and came across it a coyote not just taking a dip, but struggling to get out.

Van De Wolfshaar said shewanted to help the coyote,but pushing it out didn't seem like the safest plan. Instead, shetried to lure it toward the pool's steps so it could easily exit.

It didn't go as smoothly as she'd hoped.

"It would swim a little bit, and then it would try to get out the side of the pool. And then it would really struggle and then it swam a little bit moreand then it finally got out," she said, adding the entire ordeal tookabout 15 minutes.

"Butit looked tired."

Van De Wolfshaarsaidshe was also worried about what to do if the wild animal drowned in the bottom of her pool.

"What does one do when they have a drowned coyote in their backyard?" she wondered.

In the end, it was a happy ending. The coyote ran toward the back of her yard and crossed into her neighbour's property, she said.

Van De Wolfshaarsaid she then posted the pictures on a neighbourhood Facebook group as a breakfrom everyone complaining about having no electricity.

Living without power 'a nuisance'

Van De Wolfshaar got her power back later Saturday, and while the week-long outage was annoying, she said she couldn't really complain because of all the support from friends and family.

"We've had no hot water, we can't cook, we can't warm anything up except on the barbecue," she said, addingshe wasshowering at friends' houses and others were bringingher meals and doing her laundry.

"It's a nuisance, but I'm not suffering," she said before the lights turned on.

Thelack of clear communication from Hydro Ottawa wasthe most frustrating, she added.