This might be long, depending on how many details I decide to share.
So yesterday we bought a house. It's the house we've currently been renting for the last 6 years. The recession hit us hard and we lost our last house, so we've been renting ever since. To celebrate we went to Buca di Beppo. But before we did that I had to take Herbie on his daily walk. It had been lightly raining for most of the day. Sometimes Herbie likes to pull real hard on his leash. Well, a lot of the time. I always have to be real careful when he walk down into the Floodway because it's steep and he tries to go so fast. But because of the rain, it was slick and he pulled hard which caused me to slip. I scratched up my arm some, but I was more mad than anything. He kept wanting to pull hard, and I just wanted to kick him, buy you know, animal cruelty and stuff.
After a little bit he started to pull real hard. Now I know he only does this when he sees a coyote, so I started looking for one, but it was dark out. Then I saw it near the bottom of the west bank of the Floodway. It trotted over toward the middle and stopped on the trail in the middle. We got pretty close to it before it ran off. We chased it a little bit. I figured I was going to have to change my shirt anyway since I slipped in the mud. If I start to sweat a little, what's the harm? We chased it to the east side of the Floodway where it ran up the bank, went about 10 feet north and then came back down. We followed it a little more and then we saw another coyote. So we chased that one, too. They weren't running away to try and get away. They were just running enough so we couldn't catch them. But then I noticed that once we stopped chasing one, I would turn around and the other one would be right behind us. Not only that, but now there was a third one.
They say coyotes aren't pack animals, but they certainly do hang out together. But what I noticed is that they separate from each other instead of hanging together to fight together. So we'd chase one and then we'd turn around and see the other two surrounding us. It was like they were velociraptoring us. I finally convinced Herbie to just walk away, but they were following us. So we'd chase them off, but they still stayed close by. I think the closest we got to one was about 8 feet away. I tried to take some video, but it was too dark.
Fast forward to this morning. I had gotten dressed to go on my run. Vickie had already left for hers. She texted me to say that it was foggy out and it was kind of eerie. I immediately took Herbie out back for his morning pee, but it wasn't foggy out. I figured it was probably only real foggy out near the Floodway where the fog likes to settle in the channel. So I rushed Herbie back inside and fed him. I didn't want to miss the fog before it lifted. I didn't even stretch today, which I always do before I run. I got to the Floodway and sure enough, there was fog. I snapped a picture.
Up ahead on the path you can see a couple and their dog. As I got nearer to them, I saw a coyote run out in front of them on the path. I asked them if they saw it when I passed them and they did not. I ran to where I had seen it and it was still there on the top of the bank. Plus, there was another coyote with it.
I pointed them out to the couple and then I saw another one on the opposite side of the Floodway. I titled my run on Strava - Coyotes in the Mist. I ran up to Brown, crossed the Floodway, and headed back south. I had seen the coyotes at the half way point between Adobe and Brown, so I kept my eyes open to see them again. They had all moved down about an eight of a mile south towards Adobe. Now they were all on the west bank together. I took some more pictures.
You can see all three of them in this picture.
There are two of them in this picture.
I couldn't stay much longer because my glasses started to fog up and I couldn't see anymore. I'm guessing they were the same three from last night, but who knows?
I crossed Adobe and saw a group of old men walking towards me. I told them about the coyotes. Then I saw Vickie running towards me. We stopped and kissed and I showed her my pictures.
The End.
| 