A four-legged visitor got a little too close for comfort to a Calgary family earlier this week.

The coyote wandered into the Easthope family's home in the northwest community of Arbour Lake on Tuesday night. It came in through a back door and decided to poke its head around the kitchen before heading to the living room.

David Easthope discovered the coyote and sprang into action, locking his baby daughter and the family cat in the bathroom and facing down the animal armed with only a vacuum.

"He grabbed our Dyson vacuum, turned it on with the knowledge knowing that dogs and animals don't like the sound of the vacuum, and he chased it out the door," said Meaghan Easthope, David's wife. "We hadn't even been cooking in our house because we're moving in a few days, everything's packed!"

Easthope says maybe the coyote smelled their cat and wanted to whisk it off for a snack but they aren't sure exactly what drew the coyote indoors.

She says a police officer did come to check around the ground-floor condo to make sure the coyote was gone.

It's not the first time a coyote has been in the area — Easthope says they've seen a few hanging around garbage bins and that missing cat posters in the area tend to coincide with coyote sightings.