our neighbors

Do you recall a time, oh, maybe 8 months ago?

This post?

About the coyote?

(shiver)

Remember how I was thanking God that he didn’t pay attention to my prayers when I was younger that we didn’t live out on a farm where coyotes like to…hmm…  frolic?

Guess where I am sitting right now.

Nope,

not on a farm.

Across the street from one.

And since moving in, I had forgotten about coyotes- it hadn’t entered my mind,

and I was blissfully ignorant.

We had just come in, enjoying a glass of water after a long afternoon of playing in the snow in February.

At the island-like counter with R, I talk and laugh.

Then M comes roaring down the stairs all eyes and giggles and hands flying and she can’t get it out…

(does this sound familiar? :) ).

“LOOK! There he goes!”

I whip around, thinking

our neighbor- the dog- the garbage man…

but no,

it is there that I see him crossing the street, diving up and down in the field- skinny thing with big ears pointed too tall and a tail to big for its body.

Mister Big Ears himself-

coyote.

I shake my head, forget about it, don’t think about how I was just outside 30 seconds ago and how I could have been EATEN (okay, maybe not, but I don’t like those critters…)

We forget about it, move on.

But then.

We were sitting on the couch- that miss M and L and dad and I, enjoying a laugh-out-loud hystericaly funny Andy Griffith episode.

Nice night, and we are in our new house, second floor out of four in the living room.

M, all teeth and smiles, leans over, face scrunched- “Do you SMELL THAT?”

I shake my head, then stop. L is giving me a YUCK face too.

I sit, then yes.

How could I have missed it? Did a skunk just walk into the room? Nasty!

We are giggly now, and the smell goes away, Dad shaking his head at us, saying we’re crazy- he hadn’t smelled it.

Back to our show, we don’t but barely hear Kira’s not-so-fierce growling up on the landing. But remember this, because it’s kind of important. :)

Episode over, we all giggle, then M freezes- she is sitting next to the window. “IT’S BACK!”

Dad comes over and sure enough, the stink is back.

Dad thinks, looks at us funny, then says mischievously, “Coyote!”

A week later we find his little burrow a few blocks down in the field.

Great.

And now, at night when our windows are all open,

breeze flying through,

guess what we can hear?

Coyote pups yipping.

Joy to the world.

More neighbors.