Survival story

Coyote On The Beach Blanket

A coyote stalks Cynthia and Aspen on their trip to the beach. Will he attack?

Cynthia is excited. She’s taking this glorious summer day off and heading to the beach with her girlfriend, Aspen.

There is no better way to take a break and recharge than to go to the beach with a loved one, sit in the warm sand, soak in the cool water, and just enjoy all of the good vibes around.

Cynthia and Aspen packed up their car and hit the road. They’d be at the beach in about half-an-hour at most. That is the beautiful thing about going to the beach on a work day — everyone else is at work. There’s no traffic going there and the beach feels like it is your own personal playground.

When Cynthia and Aspen pulled into the parking lot near the picnic area, they noticed a coyote milling around the garbage cans. “That’s weird,” Cynthia said to Aspen. “I wonder if it is sick?”

They both made a wide berth around the wild animal. Usually coyotes run away, but this one was intent on getting into the garbage can. The cans were tough, anti-animal cans that are supposed to keep animals out, but for some reason this one wanted whatever leftover picnic was dumped in that can.

Aspen told Cynthia to keep moving along to the beach. “Don’t stare at the coyote — it might spook him.”

The two made it over the sand dune and out onto the wide beach. It was beautiful. The waves were lapping up onto the shore gently. There was a slight breeze keeping everything nice and comfortable, but not blowing the water too much where it would make swimming uncomfortable or dangerous. Cynthia and Aspen flipped their blankets onto the sand, popped their umbrella and laid down to soak up the atmosphere.

There were some boats and jet skies out past the buoys that marked the limits of the swimming area. There was a life guard’s chair high off the ground, but it was unoccupied. That wasn’t unusual during the week when there weren’t as many visitors to the beach. It just meant being careful when going into the water.

Aspen went out to the water while Cynthia watched from the shore. “She’s looking beautiful,” Cynthia thought to herself. “Hi Aspen!” Cynthia yelled waving to her girlfriend.

Aspen came running out of the water and gave Cynthia a hug.

“You should go into the water — it feels great!” Aspen said.

Cynthia decided to join her, so they both ran into the water.

They splashed each other and soaked in the azure water under the cloudless sky for a while.

“I can stay out here in the water all day. This is so relaxing,” Cynthia said.

Aspen was about to reply when she pointed back to their blanket. The coyote from the garbage cans walking to their beach spot.

“He must be looking for food,” Aspen said.

“I wonder why he’s hanging around humans?” Cynthia asked. “This is unusual. I know they are around everywhere, but they usually run away when they are spotted.”

“Should we wait in the water for a while until he goes away?” Aspen asked Cynthia.

“You’re so smart, Aspen!”

Cynthia thought back to what she knew about coyotes from her Girl Scout days. Usually wild animals stayed away from people, but sometimes they because used to be around people. Deer were becoming like that in her parents’ neighborhood where she routinely saw them in people’s backyards.

Animal attacks are rare, Cynthia thought. The key thing was to keep an eye on him and to wait him out for now because he’ll wander onward once he discovers their no food.

“Can coyotes swim?” Aspen asked.

“Probably, they’re like dogs. But, I’ve never seen one go into the water here,” Cynthia responded.

The coyote lay down on their blanket. Cynthia looked at Aspen giving her a “look at that” expression.

“He’s almost like a big lonely dog,” Aspen said. “He wants to hang out.”

“I don’t know. He’s sort of scaring me,” Cynthia said. “He’s not acting like a normal animal. I wonder if we should think of what we will do if he doesn’t leave.”

Cynthia and Aspen hadn’t brought a lot of things with them to the beach. Just their towels, beach blanket and umbrella.

“Wait! My keys are in my shoes where the coyote is,” Cynthia told Aspen. “I was thinking we could just go back to the car and come back later, if we needed.”

“Do you think he’ll attack if we go up that way?” Aspen asked.

“Let’s try and see what happens,” Cynthia said.

The two started walking from the water up to their blanket — slowly.

“Let’s see if he runs,” Aspen said.

The coyote stayed in place.

“Should we keep moving slowly and no threateningly?” Cynthia asked.

“Let’s keep moving forward,” Aspen said.

Cynthia called out to the coyote like it was a dog. “Hey coyote. What are you doing? Are you going to go home if we give you some food?”

The coyote perked up his ears and was listening. He was a little like a big dog. He knew the two women were talking to him.

“He’s almost friendly, but I don’t know. I don’t want to get bitten,” Cynthia told Aspen.

“Hey doggy. Are you a nice dog? You act like you’re a dog,” Cynthia said.

“I wonder if we find a piece of driftwood, maybe we can throw it and the coyote will chase it,” Aspen said.

They went at a diagonal path away from the coyote on their beach blanket to where there was some drift wood on the beach.

“Throw it past him and see what happens,” said Aspen.

Cynthia threw the piece of wood. The coyote looked at her, but stood his ground.

“I wish there was a life guard here so she could blow her whistle and scare him away,” said Cynthia.

“Are you going to let us get our stuff, big dog?” Cynthia yelled to the coyote.

“Let’s keep moving slowly to him to see what he’ll do,” said Aspen.

Cynthia and Aspen puffed themselves up and walked slowly to the coyote to see if he’d run away. He just looked at them like he was supposed to be there. Like it was his beach blanket and they were intruding on his space.

“I’m going to see how close we can get. I guess the key is to not run away from him if he makes a move. We’ll just have to slowly back away,” Cynthia announced.

“I’m going to name you, Charlie the Coyote,” Aspen said. “Maybe he wants us to adopt him,” she joked.

“Let’s see if we can grab out shoes and my keys so we can get out of here. We can leave the blanket, if we need to,” Cynthia said.

As they were approaching, the coyote perked up again. Cynthia can see his eyes locked on her.

“Are you going to be a good boy?” Cynthia whispered to the coyote. “I am not going to hurt you. I just want to get my things.”

The coyote tilted his head like a dog does when listening to his owner.

“You are just a big doggy? That’s what you are,” Cynthia cooed.

“I hope he doesn’t attack at the last second. That is pretty rare, isn’t it?” Aspen said.

The coyote became a little more alert. Cynthia noticed him tense up. Maybe this is when he’ll run away, she hoped.

The two kept moving forward a little at a time.

Cynthia thought to herself: Strength in numbers. Humans are the top of the food chain. Coyotes don’t eat people. They don’t usually attack. Is everything going to be okay?

Cynthia inched closer to the beach blanket. Aspen and her shoes are right in front of her. Almost within reach.

The coyote stiffens.

“It’s okay doggy,” Cynthia said. “You can run away, if you want. I’m just getting my shoes.”

“I’m also here too,” Aspen said to keep up Cynthia’s morale.

The coyote stiffened a little more.

If he’s going to attack, it will be any second now, Cynthia thought. This is scary!

Cynthia moved forward.

Their items were within reach.

“I’m just grabbing these things, doggy,” she whispered.

The coyote stood up. Cynthia froze.

He stared into Cynthia’s eyes, let out a little yip and ran away.

Cynthia collapsed onto the blanked. Aspen laid down next to her.

“That was scary!” Aspen said.

“I was afraid he’d bite. I’m glad he ran away. I didn’t know what else to do,” Cynthia said.

Aspen kissed Cynthia.

“Everything will be okay. Let’s get packed up and out of here before he comes back,” Aspen said.

“Let’s go. I’ve had enough excitement today,” Cynthia said.

Chris Hedges, BA (journalism and political science), JD, is a photographer and writer. I am an editor at ILLUMINATION, The Bad Influence, and Red Curtain Erotica. I am the owner of Publisher’s Spotlight and Unicorn News.