Coyote

Saturday morning, I got up at the usual 5 am to take Sofie for a walk. I have to get up at 5 during the week and it's just easier to keep the same schedule on the weekends.

Anyway, Sofie had been pulling to go towards the church all week, so I decided to take her that way since we had the time. We walked down the block, then up and around to the parallel street. It was dark there, not a lot of lights from the houses or anything. I don't know what made me look backwards, but there in the middle of the street, as calm as you please, was a coyote. It had seen us but Sofie hadn't seen it. When I stopped, it looked at me and I said "go on" - I surprised myself by how calm I sounded. It walked on a bit and when it stopped, I said "go on, get out of here." I was still calm, not yelling or anything. Well, it walked past us and headed off to the left sidewalk, disappearing behind a car. I kept watch to see where it would reappear but it didn't. It must have gone back the way it came but I didn't see it go anywhere and that's when I started to freak out. I picked Sofie up and walked her down the street to where the lights were brighter. I put her down but it wasn't until the bicyclist passed us with the radio blaring that I felt safer.

I'm sure the coyote came out of Griffith Park, down the river all the way to my neighborhood. They come down looking for food and several people have lost cats and small dogs to them. Sofie's 23 pounds but I don't know how hungry that animal was, especially after the fire. I think I'll have to consider carrying a big flashlight or something.