My girlfriend and I spotted this coyote on our walk this morning! We were about a half mile into it, along the path that makes its way through the open space that surrounds our homes.

It’s sad, isn’t it? Such a beautiful animal, just trying to make his way in this strange new world. Look how close the homes are to his habitat.

We watched him for about fifteen minutes. We were standing on a small, wooden bridge that crosses a small creek. It was so tranquil; about 8am. The air was still fairly cool and smelled good, with the scents of the fishing pond, the marshes and the tall grasses enticing us to keep up our vigil. But we lingered, leaning against the rail of the bridge, snapping pictures of the coyote and wondering what he would do next.

He seemed intent on his prey. Perhaps a duck or a rabbit? We couldn’t be sure as we were some distance from him. We were afraid to get any closer. We’d heard all the stories. The most recent being how a pack of coyotes grabbed a small dog from one of our neighbors, while she was walking her pet. Literally, took the dog, leash and all and disappeared into the marsh.

We continued our watch, waiting for the coyote to attack. Of course, if I had seen it actually attack anything I would have just about croaked on the spot, but just like a kid, I continued to stare and watch, and wait…thrilled that I had my cell phone at the ready, to capture the picture of the year.

It was about that time that another woman walked by, dog on leash. We were excited to share our show-and-tell with her, and I exclaimed, in a hushed voice, “We’re watching a coyote! He’s out there in the field! See? Can you believe that?! It’s broad daylight, for Pete’s sake! Poor thing, they’re probably running out of food and have no other…

That’s when the woman raised her hand, as if to shush me, and said, “Yeah, he’s fake. The golf course guys put him out there to scare away the geese.”

Stay alert!