Paths into 2008

It's bright and cold today, a fine way to bring in the new year. Looking over the pond from our living room window, we see the many paths made by the wildlife that passes through our yard and neighborhood.

What a privilege to share our little piece of land with animals like deer, snowy egrets, opossums, owls, turkeys, and even the pesky rabbits.

This winter we've added another wild inhabitant: a coyote. We first saw him in broad daylight on Christmas Eve day. Today he made another appearance - carving a new path across the pond.

It's a new year and a time to scribe new paths. My goal this year is to add to my life: increase and enhance the natural ecosystem of our yard, seek out and embrace new ways to be successful in my business, purposely bring more joy to other people's daily lives.

Comments

[steven]

Your coyote looks very healthy and well fed, I think you'll notice a few less rabbits this year!

[kristen]

Is that coyote pregnant perhaps?

[kristen ann]

I did some web research. There have been recent attacks on dogs being walked by humans, including a Golden Retriever. The woman walking the golden hit the three attacking coyotes with a stick and yelled at them, but she and her golden were stalked all the way back to their car. I think that you should help keep it fearful of humans by yelling at it when you see it. If it breeds in your neighborhood, you could get a mini-pack going on.

[kris]

Hi - welcome back!! I'm glad the shoulder is on the mend - hope you're back to 100 percent after all of your PT.

I love all of your snow photos - it's been a gorgeous winter so far, hasn't it? I could do without the super cold, but...

A coyote - how cool - and a little scary. With the dogs, I'm not sure how I'd feel about having one that close - but I would love to see it.

[Annie in Austin]

Hi Tracy,
We used to hear the coyotes howl at our previous house in Austin, but not at this one - I liked the sound, but we seldom saw them.

Coyotes have been seen in downtown Chicago, and I've heard of suburban Chicago encounters betweens dogs and coyotes - not exactly attacks - but with some weird and ugly puppies as a result.

Hope your New Year is a good one, with a return to full strength for you,

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

[Tracy]

Steven: My next post helps describe why he looks so fat and jolly!

Kristen: I don't think it's pregnant, but it would be hard to tell. Now that I know it's around, we're being careful with Brix. A good sign is that as we were watching it eat yesterday (see my next post), it got spooked by people walking on the road, which is quite a long distance from where it was feeding.

Kris: Thanks for your well-wishes! PT is going, very slowly but pretty surely. It has been a nice winter, hasn't it. The only problem with getting this much snow this soon, though, is that we'll be pretty darn sick of it by March!

Annie: We have yet to hear a howl, or even the characteristic "yips." We'll be keeping Brix away from the coyote, but at least we have the peace of mind knowing Brix no longer has the capability of fathering any half-breed pups!