Coyotes

Psalm 136:25

Good News Translation (GNT)

He gives food to every living creature;
    his love is eternal.

Sauron was our last cat. The kids named him after J. R. R. Tolkien’s "Dark Lord of Mordor", from The Lord of the Rings series, because he was pitch black and had a feisty attitude towards the world. He was never a lap cat but did his best to keep all of us serving him faithfully. We weren’t enough subjects for him, however. He would leave home for weeks at a time, and we would not see him at all. With a cat door in the back of the house, he came and went as he pleased. About seven years into his dominion in our home, I happened to talk about him to Debbie who was on the same committee I was on. She lived about 3 blocks away from us. She had been feeding a cat that answered to the same description as Sauron, including its collar. Sure enough, he had that family under his sway as well. He would be around there for several weeks and then disappear for weeks. Sometimes he would be at neither of our homes for weeks at a time.

He had a love-hate relation with our dogs. When Brenna, our half malamute, came to live with us, he disappeared. She was enough to scare anyone. Unlike most dogs, she would stare you down with her bright blue eyes set in a black face. But after almost a year, Sauron walked in and reassumed regal dominion over our home.

One time during Brenna’s stay when neither Debbie nor I had seen him for several months, I saw Sauron about a block down the street. He came over and rubbed against my leg. He was very thin and emaciated. Two inches of naked bone stuck out the end of his tail. I picked him up and carried him home. He stuck around for a couple weeks, regained a bit of weight, and disappeared. About two months later he moved back in. His tail was completely healed and shorter. He was fat and sleek and showed evidence that he had life under control. He lived with us on and off until he was about 11 years old. Then he disappeared forever.

We had had several other cats before Sauron, none of whom survived even a year. We placed the blame of their disappearance and Sauron’s wounded tail squarely at the feet of the coyotes that police our street every night of the year. The coyotes are wild and live in the desert hills around our home. They sometimes take cats and small dogs to help supplement their meager diet. I quit keeping cats because I just couldn’t take the emotional loss of fattening them up for the coyotes to kill.

The coyotes usually appear well fed and groomed, arrogant, and even brazen. They earn the title of being wily and shrewd. They are essential to our lives because they live on desert rodents that would quickly become a plague without them. We hear their choruses in the dusk on most evenings. So we and they also have a love-hate relationship. We have reached a compromise that I find totally satisfactory: I keep only big dogs, and they keep down the vermin.

Thank You, Lord, for feeding the coyotes that we actually enjoy seeing and hearing.