An exchange between a human and an omnipresent coyote, using drawings and photography as the channel of communication. #dearsongdog
Dear Song Dog
I once found a soft little orange paw on my front lawn. I realized that it was my neighbour’s cat and so I quickly picked it up and put it away in a bin. It was so light and it rolled around in the dust pan.
I know you don’t distinguish between all the small animals, but humans with all their thinking capacity have a strange animal hierarchy we follow. Some species get to live with us in our homes while others, like yourself, are disregarded sometimes with deep disdain.
I have always found it so strange how humans can love dogs and cats with deep compassion but when it comes to coyotes (which is what you are called to humans) the compassion turns to fear – like the black hole bardo I mentioned last week.
If dogs and cats were surviving and adapting in nature like you do, without humans to care for them, we would feel proud of them and champion their ingenuity.
Back to the soft orange paw, I never told my neighbour what I found. When my cat went missing I didn’t know what happened and so I prefer to think she is living somewhere with a new human. It’s always a battle between intellect and the heart when you are a human.
I sometimes wonder if you left that soft little paw like Crow leaves pieces of glass in my yard.
Maybe you left it so that I could tell this very story to you.