Last night I was almost asleep and had to get out of bed to open my window to better hear the coyote pups.  They are somewhere nearby, I have been hearing them regularly.  There is nothing in the animal world that thrills me as much as that sound.  It is sudden, earnest and just as suddenly, over.  I try not to think of my other little critters that live in the woods that is our neighborhood. They are undoubtedly the cause of their racket – we know a turkey got it a few weeks back when we found it mauled just off our driveway.  We have our stray cats, our raccoons, our possums, our squirrels, our red foxes (fox? foxi?).  As much as we try to keep Twister the Cat in the house at night she sometimes sneaks out and we are aware that she is in danger.  The only thing that possibly has saved her is that she is jet black and doesn’t much like other living beings.

The coyotes, though.  The first time I ever heard that sound was when Al and I were camping in Death Valley, which happens to be one of my favorite places on earth.  It’s what I imagine the moon would look like if I could camp there.  It was a full moon when we were there.  I woke up to the eerie sound of the coyotes and have been entranced by it every since.   The next night I put our little tape cassette next to the tent door and turned it on when they began their wailing the next night, but they were too far away.  It sounds crazy, but I think it is so cool that I can hear them in my own little bed at home now.

There is a lot of lore about coyote, wily indeed, the trickster.  When we see them in the daytime they are almost always alone.  I don’t know much else about them including why they seem to howl as a pack at night, when they are so solitary during the day.  It doesn’t matter, the more mysterious the better I like them.

I am always sad when they stop.  Last night it only went on for about a minute, and then it was silent again.  For a moment I am taken to a mystical world, I experience a longing for pre-industrial, pre-technology, pre-noise-everywhere Earth and for just a moment I am there, my imagination carrying me away, as I enjoy a timeless feeling of being alone that is peaceful and awe-inspiring.  All from a few noisy coyotes.  Hope they are around tonight.