Close Encounters of the Canine Kind

Two weeks ago, Daddy, Onyx, and I were hiking at a county field and forest preserve. We've been there many times. It's a great place to let Onyx off his leash so that he can run and investigate smells. The video below is from over a month ago. I'm showing it to help you visualize the setting. It also, in a very open-minded way, serves as a pre-reenactment, if you will, of an encounter we had on that day two weeks ago. The story of this encounter follows the video.

Back to two weeks ago (or forward...I'm getting confused). Anyway, we had walked a couple of minutes into the woods when Daddy noticed a big dog-like creature running away from us. We chose to walk in the opposite direction when suddenly we noticed another dog-like creature crossing our path ahead and then out of sight. Daddy said it was a wolf (yeah right, Daddy) or a coyote. 'Wolf' did sound more dangerous and therefore exciting. That's when we decided to let Onyx walk ahead of us even though he did not yet see anything. Unsuspecting Onyx soon stopped and sniffed around, looked up, pointed (like dogs do), and began barking. That's when we noticed it: a coyote. Onyx barked and barked while the hair on his back stood up. Daddy took pictures with his camera phone. In return of the barks, the coyote raised his head towards the sky and barked small, muffled barks. Finally, when Mr. Camera Man came to his senses, we walked away and back to the car. We were safe at last. The pictures on the camera phone reveal little difference from 30 yards away between tree leaves and brush and a coyote head.

We did a little research on coyotes in our area. About a hundred years ago in southern Canada, coyotes and wolves made babies that eventually migrated south. The descendants of these babies have been studied to show a genetic link between coyotes and wolves. That's why these coyotes are larger than normal. So Daddy may not be completely wrong about the whole wolf thing. It was a big coyote, seemingly larger than our 90 pound black Labrador retriever.

What made me write about this now? Why didn't I tell you as soon as it happened? I don't know, but Onyx's encounter from this morning reminded me of the whole thing. I was in my high chair eating breakfast when I heard Onyx barking outside. Daddy put my spoon down and went to let Onyx in. As he was doing this I heard other dog barks and then some yelping. The coyotes found Onyx! That was also Daddy's first thought when he first glanced at two big dog-like creatures cornering Onyx against the house and attacking him. It sounded awful. Then Daddy noticed a big harness on each dog and a disgruntled damsel in the road yelling at and apologizing for her dogs. Daddy grabbed the drool-backed Onyx and brought him inside. We heard the lady yell, "Nice to meet you!" followed by Daddy slamming the door. Onyx walked in, head low, tail between his legs, his body quivering, and immediately laid down in the kitchen. If anyone knows Onyx they realize that he is more of a lover than a fighter (kind of like me). We worried about Onyx for about 30 seconds. That's how long it took for him to snap out of it and begin his usual routine of begging for our breakfast and wanting to play fetch. He's fine now.

So I have to be prepared if any of this happens again. I will sleep and build my strength. I'll also wear these camouflage pants so that no dog or coyote-wolf will be able to see me.

I can't wait to get back to the field and forest preserve to find that coyo...wait...Daddy just informed me that Mommy won't let us go back there. Blasted! Foiled again!