Tag: Coyote

I mentioned last week coyote are cautious.

This week’s offering is a continuation, if you will, shot a few moments later in the evening.

What stood out here is the coyote gazing into the sky periodically and shying away. There were no astronomical oddities that night; no comets, no meteors, no blinding conjunctions.

What caused him to look up so often?

It reminded me of a story I read long, long ago. Basically, there was a killer asteroid coming at the earth. Simultaneous with the discovery of this asteroid, cetaceans as an order being singing a unified song. Some group studying whale song was close to decoding their language. Whale ancestors, it was known, survived the last ELE.

The uptake in song is part of their race memory and translates to “Lords of the Sky, Let Us Live.”

Wish I could track down that story and reread it. I remember it gave me chills back then.

 

I mentioned last week coyote are clever.

This week we learn they are also cautious.

With good reason, me thinks. They are misunderstood and misunderstanding’s denmate is caution, its cousin is fear.

How many times have you not been sure of something and chosen caution as the default mechanism?

Take a look at any government’s plans for an alien attack (what? you’re surprised such things really exist?) and you’ll see movies, novels, TV and radio dramas go mild in the response area. If you’ve never heard of “If I can’t have you then nobody can” as a dating strategy, check out these plans.

Can you say Scorched Earth?

Governments learned by observing their own colonizing endgames, me thinks. It use to be said, “Better dead than Red.” Seems to be their current thinking, as well.

So caution is the wisest move in the short term. Until proven otherwise.

Have you ever had the opportunity to win the confidence of The Wild?

It takes time. Lots of time.

And it’s worth it.

The Old Ones…they remember.

 

Coyote are clever.

Not to put down other Old Ones. The Wild doesn’t tolerate poor design. You think humans are grand engineers? Everything not manmade on this planet has gone through enumerable iterations, each one a minor improvement over the last.

Then how come things are going extinct, you ask?

Because humans are stupid.

We are evolution’s “big brain” experiment. It experimented with big muscle, big size, big this and that, none of them worked out.

Want the kicker?

We won’t, either.

But the coyote…if humans mind their own business and take out only themselves, the coyote – who were here before us – will be here after us.

Coyote have urbanized in many places. They’ve adapted to us. They’ll adapt to without-us.

The coyote near us have learned to listen to the raccoons. Do they hear the raccoons munching on peanuts and dog food?

That means Two-Legs have put food out, and easy treats are hard to come by in our world.

So they listen. They approach. They rustle to let the raccoons know they’re coming, time for the raccoons to leave, and they dine.

And so we’ll let them be.

 

Over a year ago we encountered mated coyote, Sarah and Gladstone. We’ve seen coyote since and not often.

They are quiet and shy creatures.

Who annoy Boo by their presence.

We’re not sure why. Boo doesn’t like opossum and he will tolerate them to a certain degree. They must stay off the porch and otherwise, c’est la vie!

But coyote…

Is it because he recognizes an ancient ancestor in them?

Perhaps he fears they will usurp him in our hearts (never fear, Little Boo).

Could just be that we sometimes give him the dog food we leave for the coyote and raccoons and he thinks no, that’s his food, stay away.

Doesn’t act that way with the raccoons, though. Maybe because they also get peanuts?

Anyway, Sarah and Gladstone. Enjoy.

 

Sometimes our indoor children have discussions with our outdoor guests.

Most times they tolerate each other.

Ghost, our indoor cat, barely gives a nod when someone shows up.

Boo lets us know when various Old Ones are about.

He sometimes whines at the door. Translation, “The raccoons are here.”

Or he’ll sit and stare out a window. Translation, “The turkeys are here.”

A low growl. “We have an opossum visiting.”

And then there’s the huff. Sometimes it’s a huff with a bounce on his front feet. Usually means something doglike is on “his” turf.

Quite territorial, he.

Fortunately, our canid wild isn’t quite as territorial as he.

As you can see here, Samuel the Coyote basically says, “Yeah, okay. A dog. Sheesh. Chill, Bro. Yo! Two-Legs! Want to put a muzzle on that inhospitable pup of yours?”

Boo has learned not to be so challenging.

We go out and see to our guests, then promptly come back in and give both him and Ghost treats.

Lets them know these Old Ones are our guests. There are rewards for treating them with respect.

Not sure how to teach Two-Legs the same thing, though.

Suggestions, anyone?