I was just thinking the other day that it had been weeks since we've seen a coyote. We hear them from the barn during the day, howling in the hills, and from the house late at night, a raucous, ranging chorus. And then suddenly there was this guy, who loped across the street as casually as a neighborhood dog.

He ignored me while I grabbed my camera.

Couldn't care less when the car window came down.

Here's his reaction to Maisie and Walt moaning in the back seat:

There's a network of tunnels all up and down that hill, gophers and ground squirrels, and this coyote, he was grocery shopping.

Sniffing and digging and listening -- look at those ears -- and pointing like a Labrador. And I swear it's not (entirely) because of this, but I was rooting for him.

Good luck, little guy!