The coyote tale

I like coyotes almost as much as I like peanut butter, but not as much as I like butt rubs. Yup. I keep meetin’ coyotes, but it’s not cuz they like me. It just happens. Anyway, this is my first coyote story. It happened about a year ago when we were living in Connecticut. I know, ya don’t think coyotes when ya think Connecticut, but there are plenty there! We’d seen quite a few in our field on the hill before this story even happened. They’re big dogs with lots of thick fur! They’re afraid of us mostly. I wish they would play.

Anyway, the Lady, the little guy (Eli), and I were in Huntington State Park, which was, at the time, my favoritest place to go for good runnin’. Huntington is in Redding, CT, where I used to live. There are lakes and streams and swamps and rocks and trees and squirrels and deer and skunks and all the stuff that smells so great. I run around there til my heart pounds so fast. I swim in the lakes and tromp through the mud. I stay close to the Lady cuz I love her and it’s my job to protect her.

Eli was just 4 or 5 months old at the time, just a little punk (I could’ve eaten him then). He was a whiny, sniveling little piglet who followed me around like a little black shadow. He was chasing me in circles in the way back part of the park, where nobody hardly ever goes cuz it’s so far and the brush is so thick. (One reason I love the Lady is cuz she’s an adventurer.) Suddenly I caught a whiff of somethin’ that wasn’t quite right. It smelled kinda like a dog, but better. funkier, more wild, with no human smells on it. I was nervous for the Lady, so I ran toward the smell to check it out, with Eli tagging behind me. I heard the Lady shouting for me to come back, but this was too important. I followed the scent into a big hole under an old tree, and WHA! There were a couple of coyotes sleepin’ in there!

They weren’t too happy to see me, and I backed right out of there when the big one growled at me. But backing out I bumped into another coyote! He was about the size of a big German Shepherd, with tons of thick brown-and-grey fur. He must’ve weighed eighty or a hundred pounds. I hunched down with my butt in the air to kind of apologize about the whole rude interruption thing and see if he wanted to play. Well, whoops, he didn’t! He snarled a ferocious snarl and made loud barky noises at me. He didn’t seem to understand that I was just checkin out his den, not trying to steal nuthin (like his girlfriend, who was very pretty).

While we all stood there for a few seconds, more coyotes appeared from behind trees and hills. I think there were about 5 or 6 of them. They were big, beautiful pooches. They didn’t look quite as angry as the one who was snarling at me, but they were pretty scary anyway!

I smelled a strong pee smell, and I looked over to see that little Eli had rolled over and peed all over himself! Hahahaha! The coyotes paid no attention to the little whiner. Well, I guess I can’t blame him for peeing, cuz I was scared, too! I took off a’runnin’, and the big coyote chased me! Oooh, he was fast!

While I was zipping all over the woods with the big coyote, Eli got up and scampered back to the Lady. Some of the coyotes followed my little pee-stinking brother casually, just out of curiosity, I think. Eli returned to the Lady and sat on her feet while she asked him where he’d been. Then she noticed the two coyotes standing on the little hill about 6 feet from her. Oohhh, she was startled! She then heard another noise behind her and turned to see yet another coyote watching her! She was a little scared, but reminded herself that coyotes don’t attack people unless they’re very sick, and if these coyotes were sick they probably wouldn’t be tromping around the woods together. So she just stood there with the soggy puppy sitting on her feet whimpering. They eventually turned around and rustled away into the deep woods.

Meanwhile, I was having all the fun being chased by this gargantuan coyote through the ridges and valleys! He was barking and yelping as he chased me, and I was yelping, too. The Lady heard me and was very worried. Then I started to get a little tired. And y’know what happens when I get tired? I slow down, uh oh. When I slowed down that coyote bit me right on the butt. Yup, he sank four big teeth into my little butt, a part of my body intended for rubbing, not for biting!! Oooh, it hurt! But he seemed satisfied now that he’d taught me a lesson, so he turned and went back to his pack.

I ran back to the Lady (it took me a while to find her), who was calling my name and getting pretty upset. She was so happy to see me!! She hugged and kissed me and told me never to run off like that again. I didn’t tell her about the butt bite thing, cuz I didn’t want to ruin the moment. We walked the few miles back to the truck, and I swam along the way in the big lake. When we got back to the truck the Lady toweled us off, laughing at Eli for peeing on himself, and that’s when she noticed my bite. She was so upset!! She took me to the vet (ooh, I love the lady Annette, who holds me while Carl and Lisa give me shots) and I got cleaned and poked and prodded. So much fuss over a little bite. She also had to talk to the animal control officer about what happened. The officer was very nice. She said that coyotes in the Northeastern USA are interbred with wolves, so they’re really big!! She also said that one was found at the University of Connecticut with rabies. I was very sad about that. I had to get my rabies booster shot just to be sure. Yow!

My first up-close coyote encounter was sure an exciting one! Wanna read my other coyote story?