Chicago Dogster Mom Fights Hawk Off Chihuahua Tico
If you live in a city with a small dog or cat, you may think you don’t have to worry about predators. Think again! Janice, furmom to the darling Tico el Bandito, barked in to warn all Dogsters and Catsters to watch out for hungry predators.
It’s cold and many larger birds and other animals are hungry. Keep an eye on your smaller furbabies!
And Janice, please bark back in to let us know about Tico!
Janice F. wrote:
JoyYesterday morning my Chihuahua was attacked by a hawk in my own backyard.
I live in a suburb of Chicago off of a busy street.I had to fight the hawk for my dog and then rush him to the hospital where he is in critical condition.
I thought you might be interested in this as a warning to other pet owners.
This is unreal! too unreal! A nightmare!! We live by the ocean, and all kinds of big things fly around or there are raccoons. I cannot ever let him out alone… i am always there. It’s terrible, and right in your own back yard. Am so so grief stricken to hear of this.. Seeing the picture/ sure…..i’ve seen your baby posted on the boards before. My Gosh…..I pray for a Miracle, but most of all, am just ‘angry’ that something like this would happen to an innocent chi/ and all that you guys most have done to fight the battle. Terrible.
Thank you so kindly for this warning, and do keep us posted.
Jan and Lord Pippin!
I’m adding my prayers for sweet Tico. I’m a chi mom too and it’s really scary sometimes. I live in the ‘burbs too and we have all manner of woodland creatures around our house.
Our dogs have been swooped by hawks before since they resemble rabbits from the air. We also have foxes and coyotes in the woods behind us. Needless to say, we keep close tabs on our pooches when they’re outside and the kitty is indoors always.
Its really pathetic…..what cute pisture …I feel doleful for
this incident….I am concencus with dr. janet…
Hi my name is Dee I own 3 dogs and one is a chi also…We live in Seattle Wa and have gone ROUNDS with a hawk alllllll summer it was REALLY bad fall and winter he has tapered off.
I found out if it was the “young” hawk he was fearless he would swoop my chi even with me standing right over her.
The older hawk would NEVER come near if I was standing right there.
It got so bad that what we did (if you could see this in your mind) is imagine a square (the house) surrounded by another square (fenced in back yard) our living room is on the back part of the house, another words our wall faces the back fence. We built OFF of that fence and joined it to the back part of the house. Using cedar post attaching it to the house…..covered the opened “top” part with chicken wire” now….I put a doggie door with steps and there you go nooooooo hawk.
They can go in and out when ever they please and I know they are safe. I found that my indoor cats are in love as well.
As far as the hawk goes…sounds like a young one and …nothing that you can do really except scare the daylights out of him when he comes around. I bang loud on pots! We also have an owl (hardware store plastic one) That you MUST rotate into different places BECAUSE the darn hawk is that smart.
And the only hope I have found out is the nest….IF you can find it you can get rid of the nest and it might move on OR if a reall owl moves in and takes over the nest the hawk will move on BUT BEWARE that if none of these things happen …come next spring that hawk will be there ..mate and have 1 offspring. If there is anything I could help you with please let me know~
Sending healing thoughts and prayers to your family
Dee & Mabelline & Rocky
Janice and Tico — I am keeping you in my prayers and thoughts. We visited your Dogster page, Tico, and Angus left you a message. Angus is a little boy, too, and his human often worries about the hawks we have in abundance in our area.
Wags and furry-armed hugs!
Dee and Maybelline,
Thanks for barking in your suggestions. They should be very helpful to some pet parents!
If anyone else has some ideas, please bark in.
I have a 25lb puggle, and I worry about that kind of thing happening all the time. Those birds are huge and would have no problem snatching my pup.
I hope your dog pulls through!
I am sorry to hear about Tico, but newsflash, hawks and other animals see small animals as prey. It’s natural. I live near Seattle, farther north in Stanwood and there are plenty of hawks, bald eagles, racoons, coyote, etc. When my dogs were babies I did not let them outside by themselves. They are 75 and 85lbs now, so a hawk isn’t taking them, but a pack of coyote might. I still do not babysit them and let them out in the yard alone at night.
As for getting rid of the nest, I can’t believe someone wrote that. As if the hawk has less of a right to live there than you do! It’s NATURAL for a hawk to want to eat a small animal! You opted for a small pet, now take precautions for its safety without injuring another animal in the process.
When you’re in the yard, remember to look up often.
Speedy recovery Tico!
Actually, Regina, by leaving the nest alone you’re suggesting the dog has less of a “right” to live there than the hawk. In any case, the hawk voluntarily relinquished it’s rights by declaring war on the dog, not that that any of this even makes sense since there are no such thing as “rights” in nature. Rights aren’t “natural,” but rather are a human construct, i.e. one of the most unnatural things there is. But then again, humans are animals and part of nature too, so anything humans do is “natural,” and therefore acceptable, right? Removing the nest is actually the most “natural” thing to do since that is what any animal in nature would naturally do, which is take out the threat by any means necessary. If you don’t believe me, go attack some bear cubs sometime and see if the “natural” thing is for the mama bear to “take precautions for (the cubs’) safety without injuring (you) in the process,” to borrow your phrase, or is it to maul you to death. No, Regina, it is only by doing the most unnatural of things, i.e. the human thing, that the hawk should be allowed to live.