Winnipeg couple recounts ‘scary’ backyard encounter with coyote: ‘It kept coming’

A scary encounter with a coyote in Winnipeg has a couple cautioning others after they say the animal reportedly showed no fear towards people.

“It had me shaking. I’m shaking now just thinking about it. I was shaking pretty good all night,” said Susan Golembleski.

“It kept coming up and I was yelling at it, and it wouldn’t go away.”

It was a normal evening for Golembleski Thursday. She was throwing a ball for her dog Rosie, when she – and the pup – spotted a coyote in her backyard on Knowles Avenue. The little dog quickly approached the wild animal and Golembleski gave chase, taking a fall and injuring herself in the process.

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Unable to walk, she says the coyote started coming at her, with the animal showing no fear.

“Not at all,” she recounted. “It was checking us out pretty good. I kept trying to move and I’d look back and it’d be back again and I’d yell and kick at my feet and it’d just move back, maybe 20 feet, but then it’d be right back at us.”

Remembering she had her phone, she was to call her husband inside the house for help. He was able to chase the animal away, but the encounter left her reeling.

“It’s kind of scary when it’s in your own backyard,” she said.

When her husband Jay Golembleski came out of the house, he says the animal was still in the yard, just a few metres away from his wife.

“It was a fairly big one, like I’ve never seen one that close,” he said.

He says while there are lots of coyotes in the area, this one was particularly brazen.

“It was so weird. Like it had no problem coming into the yard this close.”

While he was listening to where the animal went, he got closer to the brush in his backyard, but backed away when he realized that may be a bad idea.

“I sort of could hear it, but then I heard something in the other end and I slowly walked back, because I ain’t stupid,” said Jay.

CityNews reached out to the City of Winnipeg for information on coyote reports in the city Friday evening, but a response was not received immediately.

Information from the province indicates if you encounter a coyote, you should not approach it, or crowd it. Remain calm, do not run, and make noise, or throw rocks at it to try and scare the animal away.

Golembleski posted about the incident in the Winnipeg Coyote Sightings Facebook page to ensure others are aware just how fearless some of them are.

And for others in the area, like Steve Halabura, he’s already on high alert, keeping his cat inside due to what he says is the growing presence of the animals.

“Oh my gosh. If that animal, my cat, ever went out, that would be it,” said Halabura.