The Saga of Mrs. Smith's Coyote Carcass

[indianasmith]

   This was a busy weekend.  After heavy rains last week, I was stoked to go to the river early Saturday morning. But then Friday I found out that an old friend whose family I pastored long ago had passed away, and the funeral was at 10 AM Saturday morning.  So instead of finding artifacts and fossils freshly exposed, I attended his services, then helped my wife clean out her music studio, which had flooded during the rains and had to be packed out so the flooring could be replaced. Then family stuff took up the rest of the afternoon and evening, so I made up my mind that I'd go fossil hunting after church the next day.
   My daughter Becca and her husband, Joseph wanted to go with me, so we wound up taking two vehicles - the three of us in one and my wife and other daughter Rachel in the other.  After church ended, we headed up to the river and they went home.  I was almost to the river when my wife called me, almost hysterical - there was a dead coyote on our road, and she hadn't seen it in time to go around, so she tried to straddle it, and it got hung up under the car.  She drove nearly two miles to our house dragging this poor dead animal, leaving a faint trail of coyote gore that was still visible four hours later!
   Once I realized she was home and safe, I told her I'd take care of the matter when I got home and enjoyed a few hours on the river with my kids.  I got home around 5:30, as the sun was setting.  I jacked her car up and then set some blocks under it so it wouldn't kill me if it slipped off the jack, then crawled under with a flashlight.  The coyote's tail was wrapped around her drive shaft, and no amount of pulling and tugging would get him loose!  It became evident that the only way to get him out from under there was for his tail to part company with the rest of him.  A lengthy process of trial and error involving bolt cutters, a hacksaw, a gladius-style machete, and finally an old-fashioned carpenter's saw, finally ended with the stuck appendage cut free and the poor, battered coyote's carcass chucked across the fence and into our field.
   I took the car to the mechanic this afternoon to see if the tail was still up under there, but apparently it had fallen free on the way to town. Then, when my wife came in from work this afternoon, I greeted her by saying:
"Hey, you got a package from Amazon today!"
She said: "What was it?  I don't remember ordering anything."
"I don't know," I replied.  "It was a big wooden crate with ACME written on the side!"


She hit me.

[Trevor]

Poor old coyote: just heard BEEP BEEP and that was that 😳😉😉😉

[pacman000]

Coyotes are surprisingly large; running over one would be like running over an Australian Shepherd. (The American breed of dog, not a human from Australia who tends sheep.) Not surprised it wound up stuck. Feel bad for it tho; what an undignified way to go. I'd be a bit concerned about rabies after cleaning up that mess...

[indianasmith]

Well, I did take a VERY long hot shower after dealing with it.

And, FWIW, it was already dead when my wife ran over it.