Poop is one of my favorite things to smell. I can usually tell what animal left it. Sometimes my little sister Ellie tries to eat it. She’s so dumb sometimes. Everyone knows coyote poop has bad things in it.

Gracie Ann Gurley here. This is my Tale #4 and this will be my least stinky Tale so far. Get it, less stinky and poop.

Coyote poop is kind of cool. It’s never the same. I won’t ask if you’ve ever smelled it, because daddy says humans don’t do that. Daddy also said it’s not called poop. It’s scat. 

Smells like poop to me. 

Daddy and me walk every day in a big place with no houses. We see a lot of coyotes on our walks. Did you see the photo daddy put with this Tale? It was very foggy. I think we saw this coyote before it saw us. It looked at us funny for a while, then ran off. It’s hard to see it in the picture but it’s there. 

Anyway, we saw coyote poop one day that looked funny, but it smelled ok. Daddy said it looked like somebody had wrapped the poop in string. Like a sewing machine, whatever that is. Daddy thought it might not even be poop. 

I knew it was poop. 

What we figured out was the string daddy saw was actually fur from an animal the coyote ate. I’ve eaten animals before and I don’t think my poop looked like that. I won’t say which animals because I didn’t mean to eat them (DO NOT tell my momma about this). 

I think what the coyote ate was one of my squirrel friends. Squirrels are always looking for trouble. Looks like that one found more trouble than it wanted. 

When it gets really cold we see coyote poop that is full of acorns and other nuts. I mean there are so many nuts that it’s almost hard to tell it’s poop. I guess nuts are all they can find to eat when it’s cold. 

Daddy doesn’t want me trying to make friends with coyotes. He says they aren’t afraid of me, even though I’m as big as they are. Our friends once saved a big dog that was being chased by five coyotes. That’s probably why coyotes aren’t afraid of me. 

Related Tales from Gracie

Tale #1: Walks are where we learn. Every smell, animal and unexpected discovery teaches Gracie something new. That’s why a walk is about much more than walking.

Tale #11: You Call It a Walk. I Call It a Stop. Daddy thinks walks are about walking. Gracie knows all that stopping and smelling is where the good stuff happens.