On Thursday, my family and I took a quick break from the busy day and decided to go for a small walk at a nearby wooded park. I had recently been studying how to track animals by scat, habitat, and (can you guess?) their tracks. I, however, didn’t expect to be generously rewarded by wildlife showing up, but I did hope for the best. So, I gathered my camera, pocket guide, and notebook and headed for the woods. Not many people were at the park, for it was a cold, wet week day. A few retired seniors took their dogs to go exploring. The tracks they left were cruel teasers and imposters for some other canines’ I hoped to see. I walked across the park and up a trail that led into the thick woods where I was met by a tangled cluster of human and dog tracks. Here and there I could spot a squirrel’s small footprints among the mess. As I walked deeper into the woods, the unwanted tracks gradually disappeared and the path was clear. Looking down, I spotted a set of tracks. Not human, not dog, not squirrel, it was a rabbit. A cottontail rabbit. I smiled as I had at last found what I was looking for. Encouraged, I walked on, eagerly scanning the frozen ground. Nothing. An occasional squirrel or chipmunk. Nothing. I began to wonder if my luck was up when I spotted a small deposit of scat. I could tell by the way it was shaped that it was some sort of carnivore. I thought it must be a fox, but I couldn’t be sure. I snapped some pictures and started looking for the scat’s owner’s tracks. If it was some sort of canine, I would never be able to make out which set of tracks it belonged too, for there were hundreds of other domestic dog tracks littered around the area. I would have to wait until we got home, where a guide would confirm what I had seen.
After only a few moments of searching in the book, I found it. It was a coyote! I was greatly excited, for this was even better than I had hoped for. With a grin, I recalled asking God to provide me with a piece of nature to take home with me locked inside my memory, and he did. Some of you may be thinking, “He got this excited over a pile of scat?” I don’t blame you for thinking that odd. :-) I felt a little strange staring at it on the snowy cold ground, but I will always remember it with a smile.
3 Comments
EBA
1/21/2017 06:05:20 am
Thank you for sharing that experience with such vivid detail (except for the scat ;) I almost feel like I was with you. God is a perfect Father!
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Kateryna Cuddeback
1/22/2017 07:50:20 pm
Your post left me smiling too! It pulled me in and kept me guessing and hoping till the end. Thanks for allowing me to share that walk in the woods vicariously!
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