Texas Governor Rick Perry
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry has a message for wily coyotes out there: Don't mess with my dog.
Perry says he needed just one shot from his laser-sighted pistol to take down a coyote that was menacing his dog during an early morning jog in an undeveloped area near Austin.
Perry told The Associated Press he sometimes carries his pistol, loaded with hollow-pointed bullets, when he jogs on trails because he's scared of snakes - and that he'd seen coyotes in that area.
When the coyote came out of the brush toward his daughter's labrador retriever puppy on a February jog, he charged it and shot it with his .380 Ruger pistol.
"Don't attack my dog or you might get shot ... if you're a coyote," Perry said.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
