Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Wild Kingdom

Not long ago Shaun and I were rudely awakened in the wee hours by the most unholy noise I have ever heard in my life. Next to whatever was going on outside, the most obscene cat fight would sound like the Vienna Boys' Choir.

I've watched enough public television to have seen my share of lions gnawing on a gazelle, but I realized that most of the time the visuals of the food chain in action are not accompanied by the audio. It was downright scary. I half expected to come out of the house the next morning to find black scorch marks on the grass and wisps of faintly sulfurous smoke rising from the shredded remains of a little demon.

But I actually didn't see anything the next day. I wondered for about five days, until I happened across this on our front yard...complete with buzzing flies:

This morning there was a kid hanging out near our bus stop, waiting for his mom to take him to school. He was kind of bouncing around in the middle of the street.

"I saw a wolf! Right there!" he said, pointing to a nearby house. I noted Nels's alarmed look.

"That would have been a coyote."

"Yeah, something like that."

Then the neighbor came out with his briefcase and confirmed that there was indeed a coyote in his yard.

"Cool, huh? Mangy-looking thing," was his take.

I don't know if it's cool. But I'll take a coyote over the devilish fiend of my imagination any day.

3 comments:

shaun said...

That's disgusting.

Gypmar said...

Yup. That post was especially for you.

Annie Nannie said...

Wow - creepy, scary.

Did you ever hear Dad and Aunt Phyllis' wolf story? It's a good one.