A wiley coyote
And Roxy the rock snake's legacy
After a summer of bears, autumn belongs to the coyotes — or, at least, one coyote, which is proving to be both more dangerous and elusive than the city’s many black bears:
After four people were bitten by a coyote near Victoria Street early Tuesday morning, the hostile canine went after a fifth victim, biting a man who had been waiting for a bus close to the Prince George Native Friendship Centre on Third Avenue. The bite caused minor injuries.
BC Conservation officer Eamon McArthur and his team worked through the night but were unsuccessful in their efforts to locate and trap it…
“We were working all through the night and we had eyes on (it) but it moves pretty fast.”
Traps were set up in Connaught Hill Park to trap it but, alas:
One of the coyote traps set up last night near Connaught Hill Park caught an orphaned bear cub conservation officers have long been searching for. McArthur said that cub will be taken to Smithers by Northern Lights Wildlife Society co-founder Angelika Langen, where it will be remain in the shelter for the winter, to be released back into the wild next spring or summer. It’s the fourth cub from Prince George this year to be sent to the Smithers shelter.
Speaking of that trip:
But back to the coyote. Turns out, it’s not just this week that it’s been on the lam:
The same coyote is believed to have bitten a man in front of Millennium Park at First Avenue and George Street on the morning of Aug. 13 and is also suspected in a human attack earlier in the summer at Aberdeen Glen Golf Course.
That’s a fair amount of ground! There’s also a report of another attack in the Highland area. The Citizen has a picture of the potential culprit, as well.
Roxy the rock snake’s legacy
If you’ve been to Cottonwood Island Park this year, you’ll have noticed an ever-growing line of painted rocks:
What you may not know is the story behind how Roxy came to be:
Yon lives in Campbell River, B.C., but joined [her son] Jeremy at his home in Prince George last July when she learned that he had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer that forms in plasma blood cells.
In May, Yon participated in a fundraising walk for Prince George's Rotary Hospice House. While walking at Cottonwood Island Park, she says she noticed little painted rocks scattered all over the place for people to take.
That inspired Yon to start painting and scattering her own rocks. She says she placed more than 300 of them at Cottonwood Island, and says people then started telling her she should do a rock snake.
She did so, with her son, and over the weeks it grew and grew to be more than 1,000 feet and hundreds of rocks long, with visitors from all over the world contributing.
Yon recently posted that her son has passed but she also thanked everyone for helping their project grow. She is now selling decals commemorating Roxy as a fundraiser for the Prince George Hospice House.
Quick news:
University Way is open again, and under budget, too, says the city.
Northern Health says four survivors of fatal helicopter crash near PG released from hospital.
School District 57 Board to form Ad Hoc Committee for outstanding policies.
This applies to coyotes, too:
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