Watch: Coyote tries to break into California home and attacks cat

MISSION VIEJO, Calif. (KTLA) – Baby gates are designed to protect children from injury, but in this case, they likely prevented a house cat in Mission Viejo, Calif., from becoming easy prey for a coyote.

Cindy Stalnaker told Nexstar’s KTLA that she and her husband were watching TV around 11 p.m. Monday night when they heard a loud bang outside. As they walked to the front door, they noticed muddy paw prints on the porch and sidewalk.

“We immediately closed the door and turned on our phones to watch the Ring videos,” Stalnaker said.

The video Stalnaker showed to KTLA showed a coyote in her front yard cautiously watching one of her cats, who was sitting behind a child safety gate and screen door at her open front door.

Then the animal suddenly attacks the cat not once but twice, banging its head against the bars and the gate.

As the video shows, after lurking outside the front door for a short time, the coyote eventually gives up and runs away, perhaps in search of easier prey.

“We were shocked to see how aggressively he attacked the baby gate,” Stalnaker said. “Luckily the coyote didn’t jump on it.”

Stalnaker and her husband now plan to install a more effective security door to let in the “cool evening breeze” but keep the coyotes out, she says.

Coyote sightings are common in many Southern California communities, but a few encounters with people and pets have brought the problem to the forefront.

Earlier this month, residents of the Mar Vista neighborhood in Los Angeles contacted local and state authorities after a video showed a pack of coyotes chasing a man walking his dog and, in another incident, attacking an elderly dog ​​in the backyard.