Around 9:30 this morning, a coyote was captured at Trinity Cemetery on 155th Street and Broadway. It’s the third coyote to be caught in the city in the past ten years. New York City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe tells CNN they’re likely coming out of Westchester, and that they probably get here by walking down the Amtrak rail corridor or swimming down the Hudson River. The latest coyote, a female between the ages of one and two, has been taken to the Wildlife Conservation Society, where a spokesperson says
“The coyote is under evaluation and observation.”
We can imagine what they’re thinking down at the WCS. That there must be something wrong with this coyote, because what kind of coyote in its right mind would leave its pack behind and make such an insane, focused journey, in this kind of weather, to a city full of strangers with un-hairy faces and surprisingly square teeth? A freaky one, that’s what. One that’s sick in the head. But if you ask us, this coyote isn’t crazy. It’s brave.
We can imagine what they’re thinking down at the WCS. That there must be something wrong with this coyote, because what kind of coyote in its right mind would leave its pack behind and make such an insane, focused journey, in this kind of weather, to a city full of strangers with un-hairy faces and surprisingly square teeth? A freaky one, that’s what. One that’s sick in the head. But if you ask us, this coyote isn’t crazy. It’s brave.
Brave enough to leave the pack behind in search of another kind of life, a better life. And smart! Smart enough to figure out that one shouldn’t waste time scavenging on the hard, unforgiving plains of Westchester when just down the road lies a land full of bounty: streets studded with chicken bones; wrappers with a light encrustation of melted cheese; fat, lazy squirrels; stupid, arrogant pigeons. Sure, it was a risky move. “But who’s really crazy?” that coyote is chuckling to itself right now as it snoozes in a tranquilized haze. “The coyote that travels all the way into the big city? Or the coyote that doesn’t even try?”
