"The coyote is a teacher of hidden wisdom with a sense of humor."

"A trickster and a jokester in Native American folklore, using deception and humor to rebel against social conventions"

"Coyotes Active In This Area" warns a sign at the side of the path close to our neighborhood. I came to stretch my legs and get my blood pumping after too many hours in front of a computer.

Are coyotes cowering behind bushes watching me walk by? Are solitary animals howling from these hills at night? If the traffic noise rising from the streets below would stop, would I hear woofs and growls, huffs, barks, yelps and whines? I look around ...

... and see nothing but dry shrubs. I have no pet to supervise as the sign orders. Am I supposed to elimiate the apple in my backpack as I am told from the board? And if so - how? Probably not throwing it into the bushes! Eat it? Including the seeds?

"Scare away the coyotes!" The sign says but does not tell me how. 

I wonder what kind of signs the coyotes make to protect themselves from us, and what those markers say. How about:

Observe your territory. Erase your traces. Be alert, not scared.

Coyotes are "gregarious" and "crepuscular" a dictionary tells me when I research wild life back at my computer. They are "versatile" and "predatory", and "able to adapt and expand into environments modified by humans". 

I love those words: gregarious and crepuscular. I can't help but admire the coyotes for their talents and make a wish to meet one of them next time I come to the bluff to stretch my legs and imagination.

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