absolutum dominium

i saw my first coyote today.

it was one of those rare days in vancouver fall where the temperature had a 2-digit figure (10), it wasn't raining (it was raining in the morning and according to the weather report, it would rain in the evening), and it was bright (well. it's 1pm. it cannot be dark at 1pm. tt's just wrong.)

so i skipped my psychology class 2 days before my psychology mid-term (which btw i've missed more than half the classes for, and i haven't started studying for because i'm working on the first of my three 15, 000 word research papers and my psychology textbook is still with andy, one of the s'porean guys here whom i lent it to to do his psychology paper), and went for my first run in a long long long time (which explains the expanded waistline and jigglies. sigh).

and then i was running down chancellor boulevard when this middle-aged or elderly jogger (she looked late 40s to early 50s, or definitely a grandmother, but boy did she look fit) running in the opposite direction stopped me to talk to me. and she told me tt i had to be careful, coz she'd just seen 3 coyotes further up on the hill.

so the question was: keep running or turn back?

i kept running. but as i ran up the path through the trees i'd turned my mp3 player off and i kept my ears open for any sounds, cracking branches, rustling leaves, anything to signal any threats.

no threats through the trees. i was back out on the suburban neighbourhood - a row of quaint houses to my right, and on the opposite side of the avenue, the nature park. and then i saw one of them; it had been moving quietly down the other path, out of the forest in the open. probably looking for food, since the cold and the rain had probably caused its food source to move or migrate elsewhere (most of the birds have either migrated or are migrating down south already). it made absolutely no sound. it looked up and at me, and even though i didn't decrease my running pace, i held my breath, causing my chest to hurt as i ran.

it was just watching me, unmoving. and while i didn't turn my head to look at it, i was watching it from the corner of my eye. it was the size of a medium-sized dog, all furry and sleek and gray-brown. it looked like a dog but with a slightly foxy face, and it was absolutely beautiful to me. and as it regarded me, i wondered what it saw me as. equal parts prey and threat. it was slightly lowered on its front legs with its head down - the fight or flight instinct set in.

i wondered if it would take a chance. see me as prey and run across and attack me. would i survive if it did? fortunately there were houses on my right. if it did attack me, i could scream for attention and run into one, if i didn't fight it off. i didn't think i would die or anything; the most i would suffer was bites, maybe a couple of chunks of flesh out. but then again pain wasn't exactly high on my agenda. nor were extended hospital stays in light of all my upcoming papers, exams, and my trips to wherever, and all tt money tt i would have to spend on the bills (plus my parents would freak out and come up and drag me back to singapore, and right now i don't ever want to leave).

coyotes are scavengers. like jackals, they're not tt big. they usually don't go for healthy kill; they wait for sickness, injury or some other weakness like infancy or old age to take their prey before they attack it. i was hoping tt no matter how starved this coyote might be in order to venture out into the open, it would be wise enough not to regard me as worth the risk killing.

it didn't. it watched me run out of its range, and watched me for a while after, and i stopped looking at it when we both acknowledged each other's presence and the silent truce tt we would leave each other alone.