now, whose little puppy dog is that?

matt went up to new hampshire yesterday to help his mom with some computer issues. that means i was on my own this rainy day for the morning dog walk. i took them to the woods behind the back field, where jake stayed close to me, smelling things and peeing on things, and nina sprinted around leaping over obstacles like the little agility dog that i plan on someday training her to be. the dogs were way off to my left as i was leaving the woods, when suddenly, no more than 15 feet in front of me, moving from left to right, just at the edge of the trees, was jake but he was all covered in flour so he looked really pale. that was my first thought. my second was, "oh, who else walks their dog back here?" my third was, "nina is going to get eaten by this coyote."

the coyote and i both held very still for a second, staring at each other, before it continued trotting rather calmly off to my right. i yelled at it to urge it along, hoping against hope that my dogs would not notice this new dog in their neighborhood. when the coyote silently disappeared into the woods, i thought we were out of the woods, so to speak. but somehow, nina picked up the scent (damn those canines and their amazing noses) and what ensued was a lot of barking (by the dogs) and yipping and howling (by the coyote) and desperate screaming (by me- "nina, that thing is going to eat you! nina, this is not a joke! jake, save nina! jake, he'll eat you too!).

much like that one time i told that really long story about chasing a pig, this story has a rather anti-climactic ending. no one was eaten, no one even caught rabies. the dogs are now exhausted from the adrenaline and the chasing and the barking, and i'm exhausted from all those same things. they're sitting on either side of me on the couch now, all wet and dog-stinky and asleep, and i just hope that someone- whether it be me, these dogs, or that coyote- learned a lesson from this morning and that this will never happen again.