DAWN WITH A COYOTE

A good friend who is older and not as hale as myself has been missing in action. He has a pussycat with whom he likes to sit in the yard on warmer mornings than we've been having, smoking a pipe and having a cup of tea. There is a coyote across the nearby stream who eyes the cat. Which it probably thinks is just about pan-sized and would make an excellent breakfast. The cat is a 'she'. The gender of the coyote has not been determined yet, so it still has a choice of pronouns. And it does not concern me -- those things usually don't -- but if it makes a decision about the matter and voices it, I would certainly respect that.
As long as it identifies as a coyote, which it cannot deny that it is.
Biologically there is "coyote", and "non-coyote".
Everybody is one of those two things.
No argument possible.

The coyote is interested in the cat. My friend looks at the coyote. The coyote shyly stays away. It has reserve. My friend has reservations about the coyote and does not trust it. I am worried about my friend. I hope he's all right. I do not worry about the cat or the coyote, because I do not know them, we have never met. I trust both are well.


Obviously none of the above mentioned persons live in San Francisco, because we don't really have streams here, it being a built-up urban area and all. We used to.
Back when the Spaniards still ran the place.

Perhaps the morning is warmer outside the city, and suitable for sitting out in the yard with a pipe, a cat, and a coyote. And a cup of tea. It's about fifty Fahrenheit here right now, which is absolutely horrid. I'd rather have been in a bed soaking up a companion's body heat and arguing with her stuffed critters while smoking my pipe, perhaps with a cup of coffee and an ashtray on either bedside table -- remarkably, neither my apartment mate nor I actually have suitable companions for that, and both her bed and mine are up against bedroom walls so neither she nor I have more than one bedside table -- than outside freezing my arse off while bleakly considering cats or coyotes.


No, I do not know whether my friend has two bedside tables. I presume that he does, as he is married, but his wife prefers that he smoke outside, so the size of the tables is immaterial. It does not matter if they aren't large enough for coffee cups and an ashtray. Or teacups. If it's cold outside, the cat wil probably sit on his lap, and both of them can soak up each other's body heat. Sadly, the coyote will have to fend for itself. It will not be welcome in the warm heap of pipe smokers. Unless it brings its own pipe and tobacco, of course.
Pipesmokers are warm, welcoming social beings.


Yes, it was beastly on the streets while I wandered around with my pipe.
Raynauds phenomenon on both hands while out there.
I bellyached silently to myself.


Need more coffee now, and I'm going back to bed.



==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================