Glimmer #29 The Ladies Are Passing By

What’s that I see?

We have had a couple of wiley coyotes roaming around in the back woods this winter. Two of them recently took down a deer in our next door neighbor’s yard. Because I still can’t believe that I actually live in “the woods,” I am completely enthralled with the wolf-like creatures moving through the yards. I have been watching for their tracks, gleeful when I could distinguish them from the tracks of local dogs.

I feel a surge of magical joy whenever my dogs alert me to the presence of the coyotes. Their barks are different when they see a rabbit, or hear a car, or notice a squirrel. All I can explain is that when a coyote makes its way out of the brush, my dogs bark as if they are about to go on the attack. Some inner wolf arises and takes center stage in their doggy brains. Their hackles rise, their teeth are bared. They glare through the posts of our deck, seemingly prepared to take on the local predators, although they are not sure what to do when faced with a cat.

I love my docile dogs. But I really love the wildness of the coyotes who move so silently through the trees, soft gray tails swishing behind them. They pay no notice to the dogs. If there were visible speech bubbles, they’d say, “Go back to the couch, peasants. You have no power here.”