Local Coyote Would Like to Clarify That Was Not a Dog

FICTION — Rock Ptarmigan News Service

BROOKFIELD GREENWAY — A coyote seen crossing a suburban bike path Wednesday issued a correction after neighborhood social-media users spent nearly two hours attempting to identify what they believed was a thin off-leash dog.

The animal was first photographed at 6:41 a.m. near a drainage corridor behind a row of townhouses.

The original post read:

Anyone missing a dog?

Within nine minutes, commenters proposed:

• German shepherd mix,
• husky mix,
• cattle dog,
• “maybe some wolf,”
• “skinny shepherd,”
• and “definitely somebody’s pet.”

It was not.

“It’s a coyote,” said county wildlife officer Nina Shah.

This did not immediately end the discussion.

One commenter asked whether Shah was certain because the animal “looked friendly.”

Shah said appearance was not the identification criterion.

Coyotes are members of the dog family and can resemble lean, medium-sized domestic dogs at a glance. NPS describes urban coyotes as common in human-altered landscapes, including suburban neighborhoods and major cities.

The greenway itself was almost an instructional diagram: creek, brush, rabbits, back fences, a bike trail, and several quiet routes between larger patches of habitat.

Shah said a coyote using that corridor was behaving less like an escaped pet than an experienced commuter.

“It knows where the gaps are,” she said. “We’re the ones who built the gaps.”

They are not lost dogs.

“They live here,” Shah said.

The coyote was photographed again 20 minutes later crossing a narrow strip of open grass toward a wooded creek.

It wore no collar.

It did not approach anyone.

It did not appear confused.

A neighborhood volunteer had already begun drafting a missing-pet flyer.

“I stopped when I got to ‘answers to,’” said volunteer Sharon Bell. “We did not know what it answered to.”

The coyote’s statement, distributed through an unverifiable local wildlife press office, objected specifically to the phrase loose dog.

“I was neither loose nor missing,” it read. “I was outside.”

Shah declined to authenticate the statement.

She did confirm that coyotes commonly use fragmented natural habitats and move through neighborhoods, especially when traveling between green spaces.

NPS research has found urban coyotes may shift more activity to nighttime to avoid people, though daytime sightings can still occur.

The neighborhood post eventually accumulated 83 comments.

Several users began discussing pet safety.

Shah said this was the more useful direction.

“Keep cats indoors, supervise small pets, secure food sources, don’t feed coyotes, and give them space,” she said.

Coyotes that become habituated to people can lose their natural wariness, especially when human food is available.

The animal photographed Wednesday showed no reported aggressive behavior.

At 8:12 a.m., it disappeared into brush along the creek.

The original poster edited the headline to:

COYOTE — NOT LOST DOG

A final commenter wrote:

“Glad the owner was found.”

Shah did not respond.

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