Laughing Coyotes...

"Let us toast to animal pleasures, to escapism…and to the

‘good life,’ whatever it is and wherever it happens.”

- Hunter Thompson: The Proud Highway:

Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman

I live on Laughing Coyote Way in Oro Valley, Arizona.

When I tell people this, they usually chuckle.  It occasionally happens when I’m on the phone with someone who needs to get my mailing address.  I have, by now, taken to warning them that they will at least smile, if not suppress a giggle or two.

I am uncertain the origin of the name, but there is little doubt there are nights when coyotes begin singing in the desert/golf course area behind our home. 

When they sing, it is a sort of discordant harmony sounding a bit like a chorale of sopranos warbling a Gregorian chant in a minor key.  As each member runs out of air, they gasp and howl yet once again.  Occasionally one of them, apparently not attending to the conductor, ad-libs a “...yip, yip…” solo, only to be quickly overwhelmed, yet once again by the larger chorus.

My street, however, is NOT called “Howling Coyote Way” or “Singing Coyote Way,” but rather “Laughing Coyote Way.”

What is a laughing Coyote?  What makes them laugh?  Why does something catch their attention in a humorous way?  Is it for some silly physical comedy, like purposely running into a Saguaro (pronounced ‘swa-ro’) Cactus or playing dead - feet straight in the air, tongue hanging out?

When they get tickled, do the corners of their mouths gently curl as their eyes sparkle with subtle anticipation of the impending humor?

Do they tell Coyote jokes to one another?  You know,

“Did you hear the one about the jack rabbit, desert rat and wild pig that headed to the creek to get a drink of water?”

 “None of them returned…I’m NOT lion!”

Chortle…chortle…yuck…yuck…

There is little doubt there is a lot of material available here in the Sonoran Desert…snakes, big horn sheep, lizards, birds, insects…I mean the wild life is almost immeasurable.  “Wild life…” That is in itself a completely different topic.  I mean, talk about your party animals…hmm, wild animal nightlife, that would be worth exploring sometime.

But back to the laughing coyotes…

The problem is that these animals are difficult to pin down.  It seems this activity happens well after dark when most of us two-legged creatures are tucked away in our dens and temperature controlled caves.  Some of us are up at night, but our vision and hearing is so comparatively poor, we long ago decided not to compete with nocturnal creatures hunting for food, entertainment and a good joke now and then.

I suppose, like a lot of other things in my universe, I will have to depend upon someone else’s expertise, for it seems the chances of my seeing a Coyote laugh is probably not going to happen.

I have to say, however, I envy that fellow or gal who had the privilege of seeing that event and had the sense to memorialize it “…on the street where I live.” 

Maybe I could conjure the spirits of George Bernard Shaw (Pygmalion) or Alan Lerner and Fredrick Lowe (musical My Fair Lady) for some catchy lyric/tune…OR simply accept that there are some things in the universe not everyone is privileged to know…

- ted