(Continued from the 10/18 Orchard Report)
And of course they were not at all surprised when I jumped out and yelled, “Raaarrrr.” I went to run ahead again, and they followed me as fast as they could so they could see me hide again. All the way down the trail I tried to hide but they didn’t let me. And they were having the best time. As we headed back, I said, “Oh, what was that? I heard a growl. Run. Run.” Hawthorn was in my arms within seconds. Colebrook was bolting down that trail like a deer. I stopped to catch my breath. The two boys got distracted for a moment, so I hid under some fallen pines. Within seconds they were frantically looking for me, so a micro-second later, I revealed my hiding spot just 10 yards away. Then we played “catch the monster and wrestle him down” all the way back to the car. When I was locking Hawthorn into his car seat, the coyotes started howling from the exact spot where we were on the trail just minutes before. We quietly listened for several minutes. Colebrook said the first words, “There’s a baby coyote howling, too.” It is telling he said that, like he was pointing out to me that kids can be scary too.
