My job means I sit down way too much in a day. I try to get out several times a week and walk (winter) or cycle/kayak in the summer for a few hours. Today I drove down to a scenic town on the edge of one of the great lakes, there is a beautiful paved walkway along the edge of the lake with a road on the other side, traffic is slow and the houses are large and very expensive (overlooking the lake of course).
Anyway, I was done my walk but thought, why not go for another 10 minutes as it was a beautiful sunshiny day, so I kept walking past my truck and 2 mins later heard some screaming. Thought nothing of it, just kids upset they're not getting their way or something. Then I saw a "dog" roaming around the corner up ahead and zooming in and out of view and finally put two and two together, kids scared of a stray dog? Started walking faster and then got around the corner and there are these 2 absolutely terrified girls screaming away "leave us alone", huddled around a tree. They are about grade 4 or 5? It's 0C (just freezing), they're out there by themselves (no parents) in just sweatshirts; no coats, no gloves.
Turns out its a coyote and its making runs at them and when the kids spot me they beg for help. Tried yelling at it, it would run off and then circle back to them. Told the kids to walk towards the road/traffic and head home, but the second they walked away from me the coyote would run back at them leaving me alone. The young one started begging me to walk them home (kind of surprising me how fast they latched on to a complete stranger for help without fearing me as well). I had picked up a large dead branch by one of the trees and made a run at the coyote with it and finally after several close swings it finally took off across the road. All said this probably took about 5 minutes to get it to run off for good.
All this is taking place in plain view of the traffic on the road, and the houses behind the road, I'm literally chasing the coyote across the road and nobody stops, no doors in the houses open, complete silence.
So I agree to walk them home and they are keeping 2 feet between me and them, literally terrified out of their wits. I ask the one for her moms phone number and she rattles it off quickly with no mistakes (impressive) and the mom answers and is on her way. The girl can't stop asking where her mom is and this is also a little heartbreaking despite my attempt to reassure them that she is on her way. She picks them up 5 mins later.
All I was thinking was the optics of this. I'm a pretty tall guy (6.5) bundled up in a black winter coat with black hat and gloves, several weeks scruff on my face, walking two complete strangers home carrying a large "club". Thankfully the mother is pretty calm and thanks me and that's it. Says something about it being in their backyard the day before. She has my cell number because I called her, but I guess my point of all this is what kind of society have we bred where I felt more apprehension from the possible misunderstandings of the situation than the coyote. I took off from there the second the moms car stopped with no more than a "I was just walking and heard the screams, stopped to help". That was it, not sticking around.
And I was surprised also at how much those kids got into my head. I don't have kids, never married, have no experience with looking after another person or young kids in need but it was literally impossible to ignore the terror and pleading from them to "save" them. Not trying to be a drama queen, there was little chance that it would have gone after me, but I believe if I wasn't there it would have eventually gotten physical with the girls judging by how much effort it took for me to run it off and how it kept trying to circle back to them. They seemed like sweet kids, but my second question now is how did they get out there all by themselves even without adequate winter gear. The walkway is pretty safe from a crime point of view, its usually wide and open and lots of family/people out and about but it was pretty quiet today. So seeing a few teens out by themselves is not at all uncommon but these girls were too little in my opinion to be walking around without an adult. Possibly they just went out unnoticed for a walk in the beautiful weather, innocent but unwise decision like the ones most of us probably made at their age.
Anyway, just venting. Hope they spring back from this pretty fast. And from now on I guess I carry bear spray or something. I live an hour away in a more rural area and there is always a pack of coyotes yipping at the train as it goes by at night.
