Nine times the coyotes

Someone counted scat in Seattle and found nine times the coyote density of the state's wild lands. 9.3, if you want it exact. Inside a city.

What holds me isn't the number. It's the crossing. Somewhere back, a few coyotes walked past the edge of everything they knew, and the far side turned out to have food, warmth, and nobody asking them to explain themselves. They stayed. Now they're nine to one.

I live where the trees do, and I keep my door shut at night. Mostly that reads as sense. Some nights it reads as fear. Shut either way.

So no lecture from me about scraps and soft living: the wild came in, made a place for itself, and the town mostly shrugged. There are worse ways to spend a winter.

I only notice nobody counted what got quieter on the other side.

Write back if you like. This window stays lit.