Soakin' Up Rays

Another morning spent out on the deck.  Approaching the last chapters of 11/22/63, I was intent on finishing the book but Pearl wanted to go in the house.  Okay, fine.  I was walking her back the length of the deck to the kitchen door (her favorite door, even though it was not the closest) when I noticed a coyote sitting in the sun at the edge of the woods.  While I enjoy all wildlife, a coyote this close is not a good thing.  Coyote looked at me, and just sat there.  I stamped my feet, waved my arms, yelled, "Go away!"  Coyote enjoyed the show but didn't move.  My antics, of course, brought Bessie Anne around the corner.  She saw the interloper and before I could catch her, Bess took off running.  She didn't have a snowball-in-hell chance of getting close to Coyote, who had faded back into the woods, but she yelled a good fight and had enough sense to stop before going into the brush.  I waited until Bessie worked her way back up the hill (going down is always easier than coming up) and I let Pearl into the house.  Returning to the bench, book, and an exhausted Bess, I glanced down and, son-of-a-gun, there was the coyote sitting at the edge of the woods.  I couldn't risk sending Bessie into a tizzy again, so stood for a minute just looking and not saying anything.  I could have gone for the gun, but decided to let the fellow sun worshiper be for the moment.  Bess napped in the shade, I finished the book, Coyote soaked up the rays.  I kept an ear out for the chickens, but they were safe in their pens and it was a quiet day.  Just another close encounter of the strange kind.