After Work Coyote

Photo credit: Bob Gress

Wednesday night, I left work at 9:30. As I was driving through the parking lot toward the street, a coyote crossed from the grass by the building, across the road in front of me, to the grass by the parking lot. This picture isn't the same coyote, but he looked a lot like it, only in the dark. And on a lawn. I didn't have my camera.

I know why he was there. Because the bunnies come out at night. The bunnies act as though they feel safe out there, surrounded by work buildings and people walking by only once in a while. But they aren't safe, because this coyote knows they're there.

He was brazen, not seeming to care that my headlights were shining on him. After he finished crossing the road, he stopped and looked at me, as if to say, "What are you looking at?" I didn't answer him. We just looked at each other for a bit, and then he turned and loped off into the darkness.

I saw plenty of coyotes at the house we lived in before the divorce, because there were empty fields and a small canyon near us, so we didn't let the kids go outside by themselves in the morning. But this was the first coyote I've seen at work.

One other time, I saw a red-tailed hawk by the parking garage.

There's something about seeing predators in the flesh, close-up. An air of menace travels with them. They may be animals, but they aren't cute. Prey animals are cute. Predators are impressive.

And I was impressed.