house cat vs coyote...who would win?

[Kittish]

Alas, in the case of my Miss Munchkin, I'm afraid it was the coyote that won. She went missing right at a month ago, and I'm fairly sure she tangled with either a coyote or wild dog. If she'd won, she'd have come back home by now, since she was very much a homebody sort, and had only recently started venturing outside. I just hope that whatever happened to her was quick and clean.

[MoonCat]

My aunt used to have a big old mostly white cat named Chubby. He weight around 20-21 lbs. Which is probably why he survived being given an aspirin (she didn't know that it's toxic to cats) when he was ill.

Biggest cat I ever saw, though, was a stray black cat that wandered through my aunt's yard one evening. He was gigantic...seriously. He had to weight close to 30 lbs. I would not have wanted to see what he could do in a fight.

[Dreamstalker]

One of our old cats Sooty (she passed away about 6 years ago, possibly of some bone disease) was a barn kitten when she was dumped on us by one of mom's CW's. Picture a barn cat suddenly thrown into an apartment...yeah. I had to come up with creative ways of latching my bedroom door at night else I'd wake up with her gnawing on me. The way we found out she had never been spayed was when she got onto the roof and fell two stories; we think that scrambled her brains as afterwards she was pretty mean and spaz-tastic. We loved the little freak but she'd never tolerate petting for longer than a few seconds.

Our vets needed falconry gloves to pin her down for shots and he always said that if coyotes ever came into town they might get her but she'd take at least one along with her.

[Midnight12]

i have no doubt he would not only win but knock the coyote out!

[Jester]

accord to my vet.....shes convinced my cat will.

It definitely depends on the cat, but I would tend to agree with your vet. And I have some evidence to back it up.

I had a thirty pound Eskimo dog with an alpha personality and a fifteen pound Siamese mix cat. The cat was extremely powerful and very bad tempered. They hated each other.

We used to frequently have the discussion of "who would win?" I am convinced that unless the dog got off a lucky attack and killed her immediately with a broken spine or neck, she would have. In a pitched battle, she'd have cut him to bloody pieces.

Fortunately, they never put that theory to the test. But I have no doubt they both fantasized about it.

Vaguely similar to a situation I once dealt with. Back in Phoenix, my first cat Gibson was an 18 pound fullback of a cat. Broad shoulders, tall, thick. Half Siamese, half tiger stripe. Beautiful, but a little weird. For instance, he meekly accepted all the abuse and bullying the other neighborhood cats would push on him, even though he was the largest, but then there was the dog...

We had a houseguest for a while, kind of an annoying dude that overstayed his welcome and who we finally had to literally throw out. (That's a whole 'nother story, though.) Houseguest had a Husky, a pretty cool dog in general, one who had taken on a pack of coyotes in the desert. And won.

Well, the Husky and Gibson Did Not Like Each Other. At all. And unlike Gibson's behavior with the neighborhood cats, he got downright vicious around the Husky. They were always trying to go at each other, but between us getting them separated and Gibson getting in spots that the Husky just couldn't reach him, nothing other than snarling and hissing ever came to pass.

But it was clear that this Husky, this badass dog that had basically laughed at pack of coyotes, was pretty much scared of Gibson.

And we often discussed what would happen if they ever did throw down. We pretty much agreed that if the Husky ever got a hold of Gibson, it would be over, but because of the sheer speed of the cat (despite his size, he was FAST, even for a cat), the dog would probably never get a good shot at him, and that Gibson would slowly but surely tear the dog apart with his claws.

I dare say that Gibson could have indeed taken down a coyote.

It's amazing how much damage an angry housecat can do. I wouldn't be surprised if, given an average cat and an average coyote, the cat would win.

On the other hand, coyotes rarely show up alone, and cats around here often get eaten.

And therein lies the rub, as they say. Coyotes hunt in packs, and rarely take on anything that large by themselves, unless they feel threatened or cornered. But one on one, I'd say a surprising number of housecats, including Gibson, could take down a singular coyote.

And yes, I named my cat after a guitar. What's your point? (For the record, my second cat was named Hendrix.)

[Fire_on_High]

Cats with Siamese ancestry seem to have a tendency towards being a little odd. Do some research sometime and it's a fairly open "secret" why, but oddly enough not commonly known outside the Siamese community.

My in laws have the most gorgeous part Siamese kitty...silvery base coat with dark swirly stripes and a bullseye on the side, blue eyes...honest to Jesus the most beautiful cat I've ever seen, and I've seen *quite* a number of cats in my life.

He's also crazy as a shithouse rat. Randomly aggressive, has a couple known rage triggers. I can't see how they live with him, personally, but my 4 are all as placid and trustworthy as you'll ever find.

[Kittish]

My Miss Munchkin was at least part Siamese. Long haired, with gorgeous chocolate points and sky blue eyes. And the sweetest tempered, meekest, most politely civilized cat I think I've ever met. For my money, she was also hands down the most elegantly gorgeous as well.

The new kittens, about 5 or 6 months old at this point, are both cute little orange tabbies. They're litter mates, and have that utter fearlessness of cats at that age. Both of them together don't weigh even half as much as our smallest dog, and they're already well on their way to having all 3 dogs well trained. Those two will, probably, be able to take on a coyote and win some day.