Coyote Keep Away

It was 5:15 AM when I first rolled out of bed this morning.  When I looked out the bedroom window at the garden something white caught my eye.  It was at some distance away and there was  light fog in the air.  Before I had a chance to decide exactly what I was looking at, I saw movement up near the apple trees.  As I stood motionless to watch,  I saw first one, then two, then three coyote pups.  I got Ed's attention and he joined me to watch the show.  By this time I knew the white stuff was the shade cover I had over my lettuce in the garden.  The pups were using it for a wonderful game of keep away.  One pup would run with the shade cover streaming behind him and then another would give chase grabbing at the fluttering fabric end pulling with all his might to take it away in a fun game of tug of war.  Sometimes all three were tugging at once.  Oh how I would have liked to have pictures or a video of these three wild animals frolicking in the garden.  I did get a picture of a previous set of coyote pups playing in the same area in the past, but we were sure that if we moved the wily coyotes would be gone so we just continued to watch. They continued their fun game for some time.   Suddenly for no apparent reason, one coyote headed off in a bee line for the tall grass.  A few seconds after the first coyote was out of sight, a second followed the first at a speed that made us forget thinking about ever out running a coyote.  When the second one was out of sight the third followed suit.  Our exciting early morning garden show was over.

Later after breakfast, I headed outside with the camera to survey the scene.  Shredded pieces of shade cover complete with tooth marks were strewn about.

 The shade cover started out on a cage in the gray rectangle at the very top of the picture.  Having watched the animals play I was not surprised to find bits of shade cloth and the clothes pins that had been used to hold it in place strewn over this huge area.  We had watched them race all around here playing their game.

It was a surprise to find the label from my passion flower in the field of play.  That plant  is growing inside the stone square against the south facing wall.  On closer inspection footprints were found in the dirt all through the garden.  Clearly we arrived to witness the very end of a wild night time coyote garden party.  They left it up to me to clean up.  Just being there to witness the very end of the party was delightful.  After that much fun who minds a little clean up?