A churchman called in the other night and our conversation ranged far and wide. He told me about his grandfather, wounded at the end of World War I and demobilized after the Armistice. On returning to the States he caught the train from New York (?) and found himself several days later in Valley Mills, Texas, late at night.
There was no one to pick him up so he decided to walk home, carrying his duffel, home being an earth floored house some 15 or more miles away. So off he went across country, and in the depth of the night became aware he was surrounded by coyotes, "They were all around him, he could hear them moving and he had his knife out. But he made it back to the earth floored house that was his home. Father, it wasn't that long ago."
No, it was not. Sometimes I take guests out to the fields and brush near my friend's range then, at dusk, we hunker down and I tell them to listen as the coyotes start to howl. What an eerie, unearthly sound. The wolf, they say, is their natural predator.
Cave Canem,
LSP
10 comments:
Coyotes are problems everywhere there are pets, fowl, sheep and even toddlers. Family lore, not scientific, but has been claimed to work.
Collect urine then around your property perimeter pour small amounts on the ground. Theory is coyotes use their urine to define their territory from other coyote trespassers.
Does it work? Several relatives claim it does.
Ahh, yotes, a cacophony of sound...beautiful music to the ears of us who live close to the ground!!!
Yips, howls, barks....they tune up close to sundown....I love to hear their music, like God created them
To serenade the twilight....but I shant hesitate to pull the trigger on one prowling around my calving ground,
Circle of life....
I enjoy your thoughts
Jim
Yes, they even come into town. NYC has coyotes in Manhattan apparently...
I have mentioned on my blog that as a young man, I had a pet Coyote named Dusty. My uncle John found him as a pup and gave him to me. I had Dusty for a year or two before he discovered joy in killing chickens. He'd kill the neighbor's chickens and bring them home intact and put them on the porch as gifts to me.
One day he didn't come home from a midnight raid.
Coyotes have to be coyotes.
Wolves have to be wolves. And so it goes.
Read the David Morrell short story 'They'.
Good call, Bad Frog, I will.
I like the idea of Dusty bringing you gifts, LL. Of course the neighbor's wouldn't have been so keen.
Of course, Blue Terminator was a GREAT slayer of the neighbor's chicken's when they foolishly flew over the fence, but he's blind now so they're safe, along with Eduardo's exotic ducks. I tell you, it's like a bird zoo out here.
Even in NYC, NFO? Huh. I've seen them in the streets of Calgary and that was pretty cool, foxes too in central London, they were ragged, dirty beasts.
Quite a sound, Jim, and I'm with you.
I've heard that too, WSF, and could believe it.
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