We are on the San Francisco peninsula. House cat remains have been found in neighborhoods for years around here. Most people think it is coyotes. I haven’t run across any in our neighborhood, but I do see them when hiking in the hills. A couple years ago I passed one when hiking in the huge pasture at Westwind Barn in Los Altos Hills. He was going opposite me and we passed maybe 75 feet apart, both eyeing the other warily. Gave me the creeps.
I’ve seen them swimming across rivers in Skaggs Island, Sonoma County.
They are all over in the Sonoma/Napa/Solano area. We have had a couple of Wiley’s adopt our neighborhood, and they would go up the hill in the morning and come back down that afternoon. They were normal size and scruffy.
Re Skaggs Island. One of our sons and his best friend since
jr high, have slept in a boat near Skaggs Island the night before the opening of duck season. One night they heard big things swimming in the water and snarling. They never saw the critters, but coyotes might have been it. They now sleep/camp in a different part of that area.
Some few years ago coyotes were turning up on Long Island, NY. No one could figure out how they were getting out there.