Coyotes

This little corner of the western United States may not look like the archetypal Old West any more but we are occasionally reminded that it surely is. Lately, the coyotes have been reminding us. We seldom see them -- my last sighting was a year or so ago. At 4 a.m. as I drove down Studebaker Road, one loped across the road from the park and into the neighbourhood across the road. We more occasionally see the remains of their meals: a bit of possum or a fat and juicy house cat that wasn't quite fast enough on its paws. Some of them have moved out of the hills and into the Fairfax district of L.A. and assorted other very urban areas and are causing quite a hub-bub in the columns of The Times.

Joel Stein of the Hollywood Hills (and of The Times) got a little closer to his canine neighbours than I would really care to be. And he misses them now that they've moved on. He tells about it here.