Sleepy Fox Hollow spaziergang

The invitation was accepted without demure. Dusty bounded out of the bush with his limp bottle-brush tail wheeling at his hocks to fall into step beside the leader. This was not done without fanfare; his legs briefly jellified in the excitement of acceptance, and he wallowed in the dirt for a second or two before leaping up again and prancing on his tip-toes to catch up.

As wide as the cultural divide was between them, Dusty at least knew how to go about making a strong scent border. There wasn’t as much emphasis on it in the desert, since the sun tended to bake away most scents rather quickly. They used their voices — loud and often — to reinforce the idea that they were many and fierce. But they were still canids, and scent was as important to coyotes (and part-coyotes!) as it was to purebred wolves.

So Dusty spent a lot of time wallowing, actually. He looked rather like a dog fresh out of the bath at times, rolling around and rubbing his face and shoulder against every available surface.

His contributions to Mahler’s song were no less substantial, but more questionable in their helpfulness. They had very different voices, for one thing. And Dusty didn’t know the language, for another. That meant most of his interjections were of the ai-ai-ai! sort, sounding more like sobbing or laughter in turns than the kind of music most wolves were accustomed to. And although it might be beautiful in its own way, Dusty had come across plenty of wolves who found his voice rather grating.

But if there was music, he had to sing. It was the law, wasn’t it?

“What kinna words are those?” he asked when his performance anxiety reached its peak. He interrupted to save both Mahler’s ears and his own social status — since he was sure that, if he was too annoying, he wouldn’t be allowed to hang around for much longer. But it was a question asked out of genuine curiosity as well. He’d never heard German before, and it was driving him to distraction to listen to a story without being able to really understand it.