TOWNSHEND — I happened to be looking out the window at just the right time. The sun was setting, and soon the world would be dark.
The first one came across the road fast, making a break for the safety of the forest. A few seconds later, the rest of them followed the scout. For a moment, I was tempted to follow them, but only a fool would chase a pack of coyotes into the winter woods at dusk.
Some people call them brush wolves, coy dogs, eastern coyotes, and more than a few names you can't print.
They are routinely killed - shot, poisoned, run over - with almost casual violence.
Some people hate Coyote, but most of all he inspires a deep and abiding fear in mankind.
This is not entirely unreasonable.
“What if they get hold of a child?” asked one guy who used to live near a large and growing coyote population. He used to lie awake at night listening to Coyote's nocturnal choruses, and he worried a lot. People have been attacked, although it is rare.
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We have another good reason for hating Coyote.
We grew up together. During the Stone Age, our ancestors competed with canids for food. You can imagine the kind of fear that a pack of coyotes would have inspired during those long, dark nights. Anyone who has stood outside and listened to Coyote's mournful song has felt that primal fear creep up the spine.
It is easy to despise Coyote. He is a predator, intruder, dreaded child of the night.
But Coyote is not all bad. He is a good hunter, exterminator of rodents, a provider for his family. And he has a wicked sense of humor.
Coyotes like to leave their calling cards on traps set for them. One left his on a cooler on my deck. Another time, a coyote strung a deer intestine under a steel cable I had put across the driveway. When Native Americans called Coyote “the trickster,” it wasn't just a piece of quaint folklore.
Anyone who has seen a young coyote playing has a different view. Young coyotes are small and foxlike, and they frolic through their first summer like puppies.
While their howls can be terrifying to anyone caught out at night, there is a certain beauty to their songs.
Like many Vermonters, Coyote is a mixture of good and bad, ugliness and beauty.
More than anything, Coyote is a misfit, an outcast who lives on the thin margins of our world. Like many Vermonters, he is fiercely independent, loves to hunt, and isn't good at coloring inside the lines. Most of the time, he just wants to be left alone.
If you see Coyote this summer, try not to hate him. After all, he is our neighbor.