The Coyote

Hi Owen and Jack, this weekend Papaw Dennis went to his friend Ricky's corn field to look for doves. But there were not any doves! Hurricane Gustav came through north Louisiana last week, and it must have blown all the doves away toward fields that weren't flooded by the rainwater. It was still a fun day, because around 3 in the afternoon, Papaw Dennis was sitting in his camouflage camp chair on the edge of the corn field when suddenly he could hear something coming through the corn straight toward him. What could it be? Was it a bear? A camel? A llama? No, it was a coyote! The coyote came out of the corn field only a few feet from where Papaw Dennis was sitting.

Coyotes look a little like dogs, but they are not friendly like dogs. They are wild, and when they see people, they turn and run back in to the woods. This was the closest Papaw Dennis had ever been to a coyote. He had seen coyotes a long ways off in Wyoming and in Louisiana, but never this near.

At night, coyotes howl at the moon, kind of like wolves do, but it is more of a spooky sound, like "Yip, yip, yippeee!" It reminds me of the wilderness, the way this land was before the settlers came, back when only Indians lived here. The wild howling will make shivers go up the back of your neck. Papaw Dennis loves to hear coyotes howl!

Be good in school! See you soon!