Coyote!

I seem to have some sort of kinship with coyotes. I think it may have started when I was kid and went hiking in Grasslands National Park.  Our first night there, coyotes came up to our tents and started howling.  It wasn't a frightening experience.  It was beautiful.  I remember falling asleep to their music.

I spent a some time hanging out with a coyote on my first bison hunt.  We watched each other for what seemed like ages.  And then it took a big dump and walked away, as if to tell me what kind of luck I was going to have.  It was right.

There have been other encounters, but last weekend was one of the closest.  I was out riding my bike, with the girls in the trailer.  Halia was asleep.  Jade was happily reading a book we had just borrowed from the library.  As I rode, I got a feeling that I was being watched.  I turned around and saw that I was.

We were being followed by a coyote.  After riding for a while longer, I stopped to see what it had in mind.

It was very interested in us.  It wasn't nervous, but neither was it aggressive.  It would seem that it was just curious.

I let the coyote walk to our side, along the trail (not too close, of course), where I could keep an eye on it.  Then, I started riding and it trotted off the path alongside us before deciding, eventually, that it was time to go into the trees.