Did you hear the one about ...

A few nights ago, John was taking Apollo on his evening g-fer (since I'm not about to walk the dog at night and fall on my butt again), and out of the blue he called me on the phone from the park, saying "I think there's a coyote here at the park and it's following me and Monster". What?? A coyote in town? Here? John said as he and Apollo started to walk away and head for home the coyote followed them, hiding in the shadows. It sounded like it was stalking them! Well, if any of you know the story of how my old cat met his maker, then you know how I feel about a hungry coyote hunting my dog. And though a dog probably has a better fighting chance than a fat cat, at least Apollo isn't wearing a dinner bell like my old cat.

So John asks me to give him the phone number to animal control, and lets me know that he's going to stay in the park to wait for the officer to arrive. Of course he DOESN'T have a flash light with him. Finally a nice young kid shows up in a patrol car (you can bet they weren't going to send a senior officer on such a silly call!) Then, with the help of the flashlight the officer brought, the make their way back across the park and then they see it...a red body and the black fluffy tail. Just a fox having some fun. It would be a little weird to see a coyote in this setting, but a fox is apparently completely normal. It's a good thing John didn't say he'd seen something else. Heck, in the dark it could have been anything- a bear for crying out loud! That would have been humiliating. :)