AURORA, Ill. (CBS) — An Aurora woman says it’s hard for her to go outside right now, after her the dog was attacked by a coyote last Tuesday in the family’s yard.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller reports, coyotes have been ravaging Aurora lately. The duck population is dwindling, as is the rabbit population.

Sharon Poindexter says she has been noticing those trends recently, after her dog was attacked by a coyote.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller reports

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This past Tuesday, she heard a yelp from her yard.

“When I ran downstairs, I saw my dog in the coyote’s mouth,” Poindexter said.

Her dog is a 26-pound, 12-year-old American Eskimo named Diamond.

When she screamed, her neighbor, Green, came to the rescue by acting aggressively toward the coyote. It dropped the pet.

“It was surreal,” he tells CBS 2’s Dana Kozlov. “I just watch the Discovery channel. I made myself as big as I could and yelled and screamed.”

Diamond lived, but Poindexter says he shakes when he goes outside.

“You know you never thought you’d be someone’s food supply, but you have to be kind of careful now.”

Aurora has a Web site notice about keeping “a watchful eye for coyotes,” but Poindexter says more should be done.

“I don’t hate the coyotes,” she said. “I just hate the fact that there’s not been enough warnings, I feel, in our area, to alert us to these issues.”

Poindexter says she is concerned for pets in the area – and for children walking to two schools nearby.

She says some neighbors have “invisible fences” for their dogs – but the irony is, the dogs would have nowhere to run if a coyote attacked.

Green says the wild animals have become more common in the subdivision and are behaving more boldly.

“It’s a big problem in the subdivision. It’s a problem for us and it’s a problem for the coyotes. They were here long before us, but it is a problem.”