[A selection from One Dog's Story, A Book About Life. Murphy tells her story and in this selection she explains the animosity between the dog and the coyote. She bases her story on something Beau, her best friend, once told her.]According to Beau, and I don’t know where he got his information, coyotes are actually jealous of dogs. And they harbor a resentment bordering on hatred. It seems that when the ancient dogs entered their agreement with ancient humans, the one that said let us live with you and we will help you, they first discussed it with the coyotes. The dogs and the coyotes were cousins, more than cousins actually, they were as close as brothers in those days. The dogs proposed that they and the coyotes together approach the humans and strike a deal.
The coyotes were a little wilder than the dogs and they relished their wildness. They didn’t want to be restricted and felt such an arrangement with humans would be too confining. They turned down the dogs’ offer and laughed at them as the dogs slowly made their way toward the humans with their tails tucked between their legs and their heads hanging low. The coyotes were surprised to see the humans take the dogs in. And they were more surprised at the bond which seemed to develop so strongly between them.
Over the years, no, over the millennia, they had watched the dogs grow to be more and more a part of the humans’ lives. The dog had a warm place to sleep on a cold winter night. The coyote had to sleep out in the cold. The dog was fed on a regular basis. The coyote had to hunt and kill for his supper or he had to hope to run across a dead and rotting carcass somewhere. The coyote might go days between meals while he watched the dog being fed daily. And the coyote watched as the human scratched behind the dog’s ears. That was the most painful thing of all. The coyote had ears too but no one wanted to scratch a coyote’s ears and no one wanted to pet him and say, “Good boy, good boy.”
The coyotes were a little wilder than the dogs and they relished their wildness. They didn’t want to be restricted and felt such an arrangement with humans would be too confining. They turned down the dogs’ offer and laughed at them as the dogs slowly made their way toward the humans with their tails tucked between their legs and their heads hanging low. The coyotes were surprised to see the humans take the dogs in. And they were more surprised at the bond which seemed to develop so strongly between them.
Over the years, no, over the millennia, they had watched the dogs grow to be more and more a part of the humans’ lives. The dog had a warm place to sleep on a cold winter night. The coyote had to sleep out in the cold. The dog was fed on a regular basis. The coyote had to hunt and kill for his supper or he had to hope to run across a dead and rotting carcass somewhere. The coyote might go days between meals while he watched the dog being fed daily. And the coyote watched as the human scratched behind the dog’s ears. That was the most painful thing of all. The coyote had ears too but no one wanted to scratch a coyote’s ears and no one wanted to pet him and say, “Good boy, good boy.”
No comments:
Post a Comment