It was around 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning when Nicole Van De Wolfshaar heard a racket in front of her home in Glabar Park.
After being without electricity since a major storm passed through Ottawa last Saturday, Van De Wolfshaar was boiling water on his barbecue to make a cup of coffee.
“You know, when there’s a predator in the neighborhood, crows always do a huge racket?” She said. “I went outside to see what was in the backyard.”
She didn’t see anything right away, but then she went to her pool and came across him, a coyote who not only dives but struggles to get out.
Van De Wolfshaar says the coyote looked quite tired when he found it in his pool on Saturday morning. (Nicole Van de Wolfschaar)
Van de Wolfschaar said he wanted to help the coyote, but pushing him out didn’t seem like the surest plan. Instead, she tried to lure him to the steps of the pool so he could get out easily.
It didn’t go as smoothly as he had hoped.
“He swam a little and then he would try to get out of the pool. And then he would really fight and then swim a little more and finally get out, “she said, adding that the whole test took about 15 minutes.
“But he looked tired.”
Van De Wolfschaar says she tried to take the coyote in her pool to the stairs so he could get out easily but to no avail. (Nicole Van de Wolfschaar)
Van De Wolfschaar said he was also worried about what to do if the wild animal drowned at the bottom of her pool.
What does a man do when he has a drowned coyote in his backyard? She wondered.
In the end, it was a happy ending. The coyote ran to the back of her yard and into her neighbor’s property, she said.
Van De Wolfschaar said she then posted the photos to a neighborhood group on Facebook as a break from anyone complaining that they had no electricity.
Van de Wolfschaar says she was worried the coyote might come out of her pool. “What does a man do when he has a drowned coyote in his backyard?” (Nicole Van de Wolfschaar)
Life without electricity is an “inconvenience”
Van de Wolfschaar regained power later on Saturday, and while the one-week break was annoying, she said she could not really complain about all the support from friends and family.
“We don’t have hot water, we can’t cook, we can’t heat anything but the barbecue,” she said, adding that she bathes at friends’ houses and others bring her food and laundry.
“It’s annoying, but I don’t suffer,” she said before the lights came on.
Hydro Ottawa’s lack of clear communication was most disappointing, she added.
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