Janet Kessler lives in San Fransisco and maintains Coyote Yipps, a blog that documents her observations about the local coyotes living their lives. Her most recent post features a coyote dad musically summoning its family before beginning the evening together. My favorite post is a photo collection of a young, solitary coyote who digs up a clearly beloved toy on a golf course, plays energetically with it, then re-buries it. It has a sad angle; Kessler tracks and observes these animals well enough to know their individual stories, including how this one had recently lost its brother and playmate.

Closer to (my) home, I enjoyed this profile about Romeo and Juliet, a coyote couple who lives in Central Park, by Bonnie Eissner for the West Side Rag. Their territory includes Delacorte Theater, best known for its annual free Shakespeare performances—and hence the name of these two animals. The article has several great photos of the pair, including a shot of them nuzzling affectionately while on-stage together.

I have a certain fondness for coyotes, some of whom I glimpse from time to time in my late-night Central Park walks. (I left a comment about one such encounter on the Rag article.) Very American animals, urban and resilient. I like thinking of them as neighbors.