Coyote leaps fence, kills Charlotte family’s dog. ‘She loved everybody,’ owner says.
A Charlotte couple alerted neighbors to protect their pets after a coyote leapt over their backyard fence early Friday and killed their nearly 2-year-old miniature pinscher, Phoebe.
“She had so much life and energy,” Debbie Marcum told The Charlotte Observer on Saturday, hours after Phoebe died at an emergency veterinary clinic. “She hopped everywhere. She loved life and loved everybody.’’
Marcum said she had just let Phoebe outside about 4:30 a.m. Friday when the coyote jumped their five-foot fence and clenched its teeth on the dog. Phoebe weighed seven pounds. The coyote was the size of a German shepherd puppy, she said.
Marcum said she looked out and saw the coyote standing still with Phoebe in its mouth.
She screamed, and the coyote released Phoebe and left.
Phoebe ran back inside the home, which Marcum said she didn’t realize at first.
Coyote “was lying in wait,” homeowner says
Everyone should stay alert for coyotes, no matter where they live, Marcum said.
“We live in a very residential neighborhood,” she said, meaning neither woodsy nor remote.
The Marcums live in the Back Creek Forest subdivision in northeast Charlotte.
The coyote, Debbie Marcum believes, “was lying in wait.” The couple learned that from Bill Crowder, a Charlotte-area wildlife expert and coyote consultant.
“He’d been scoping (Phoebe) out for weeks,” Debbie Marcum said. “He knew our routines.”
Husband Frank Marcum announced Phoebe’s death on social media site Next Door Saturday morning.
“She had major surgery to try to save her, but the internal injuries was just too much for her,” he said. “Thanks everyone for all the comments and prayers.”
Friday, Frank Marcum reported on the site that Phoebe “is probably not going to make it. She is tore up pretty bad.”
Debbie Marcum said despite the odds, Phoebe appeared to improve. Marcum was shocked when her beloved dog suddenly died.
Charlotte-area coyote sightings
The attack came during coyote pupping season, when coyotes are more aggressive toward dogs and other animals, wildlife biologists say. Coyotes are similarly mean and deadly during the February and March mating season.
Frank Marcum’s posts prompted replies from residents across the region expressing sympathy and reporting their own coyote sightings.
“I had one pass in front of me yesterday and he was bigger than a German shepherd,” a Concord woman said on NextDoor.
A Charlotte woman said a coyote once took her small dog from the family’s backyard. “It’s a very horrifying experience,” she said.
While he’s heard but never seen one, “packs of coyotes go to war with each other behind our house,” a Mint Hill man said.
Another resident said he’s seen coyotes in Charlotte’s NoDa neighborhood.
And a woman in northeast Charlotte near the Cabarrus County city of Harrisburg said she let her small dog out on her patio once “and heard the most horrible hissing/growling sound then howls!!!”
“Thank God it didn’t get inside my fence or she would be history!” the woman said on NextDoor. “I’ll take my gun out with me if I have to let her out during the night again!!!”
The Charlotte Observer has reported fatal pet-coyote encounters in the Queen City for years.
In 2019, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission responded to a spate of fatal coyote attacks on pets in south Charlotte, warning cat and dog owners to keep their pets inside or on a leash.
“Harley my cat murdered by a coyote,” Katie Brett-Rosenthal told neighbors on NextDoor at the time.
“An evisceration,” she told The Charlotte Observer while attending a free workshop by animal control officials for concerned pet owners. The workshop aimed to teach the public, especially residents in urban areas, about “coyote conflict management.”
On NextDoor, Frank Marcum advised his neighbors to “watch your dogs this morning and be on the look out.”
If you encounter a coyote
Coyotes appeared in Western North Carolina by the 1980s and now live in all 100 N.C. counties, including cities and towns, according to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
Be assertive if a coyote nears, N.C. wildlife officers advise. Wave your arms, be loud and throw small objects at the animal.
And never run from a coyote, as it might chase and attack you, officers say.
This story was originally published April 12, 2025 at 11:12 AM.