The loud, awful sound of snarling and yapping and barking shook me from my sound sleep. I jumped when I heard the terrible noise. My head clunked the top of my doghouse.
I shook the pain away and frowned, wondering what all the noise was.
“What’s going on?” Red moaned.
“Don’t know. I’ll go see.”
I squeezed through the doorway of my doghouse and stretched.
“That’s my bone!” Poky’s angry voice came from the other side of the fence. “You leave it alone.”
There was more snarling.
“That’s my food bowl! You get away from it!”
Red poked his head out through my doorway. “What’s going on over in Poky’s yard?”
“Don’t know.” I shrugged my ears. “But Poky sounds very upset about something.” I took a couple of steps toward the fence. “Poky? Poky, what’s wrong?”
“Coyotes!”
“Coyotes?”
“Coyotes!” Poky screamed again. “You and Red get over here quick! There’s a whole pack of them. It will take all three of us to fight them off.”
Red tumbled out of my doghouse. He was so stiff and sore he could barely get to his feet.
“Come on,” he yapped. “We have to help.”
I followed him toward the broken boards.
Suddenly there was a loud growl from Poky’s yard.
“Leave that alone! Get away from my food or I’m going to bite you.”
“We’re not scared of you,” a strange voice snarled back. “If you bite us, we’ll eat you up instead of just taking your food.”
“I got friends,” Poky barked. “You get out right now, or they’ll come over here and eat you up.”
The coyotes only laughed.
It took Red forever to limp across the yard. He shoved the boards aside with his nose and stumbled through.
“Look!” a coyote yapped. “Another dog. He’s big. Run!”
“Nah,” another coyote scoffed. “Look at him. He’s so old and crippled he ain’t gonna bother us. Let’s finish eating.”
I reached for the board with my nose. I hesitated.
What if the coyotes didn’t leave Poky alone? What if they tried to bite us? My legs shook. I couldn’t bite them back if they bit me. I don’t bite. Maybe I better not go through the hole.
But when I heard more snarling and growling followed by a sudden painful shriek from Poky, I shoved the boards aside and squeezed through the hole.
The coyotes scattered.
Three of them leaped over the back fence. But when the two others saw that I wasn’t chasing them, they stopped. They crouched in the corners of the yard. They hid in the shadows.
I could hardly see them. But I did see their yellow eyes, which caught the light from the big moon. I saw how their white teeth shone, too. Drool glistened as it dripped from their snarling mouths. That was all I could see of them.
As I watched, I felt the hair rise in a ridge along my back. Something from deep inside made my rage boil. Without knowing why, I trembled. That smell—the same one I had smelled from the man in the stocking cap—swept into my nostrils. It wiggled my nose, but at the same time the smell made me feel big and strong. My lip started to curl, and I bared my fangs.
Suddenly I caught myself. I was ashamed of the way I was acting. I took a deep breath and forced the hair to lie down on my back. I replaced the snarl on my lips with a smile.
Poky raced between Red and me. His legs were stiff. The hair stuck out in a sharp line down his back.
“Go get ’em, Sweetie! Go tear ’em up!”
I made the smile stay on my lips. I forced my tail to wag. “Is there a problem, here?” I asked calmly. “Is there something I can do to help?”
Poky snarled.
“Yeah, there’s a problem. Those stinking coyotes are stealing my food. One of the guys that jumped over the fence took my best bone with him. Go get ’em, Sweetie. Eat ’em up!”
“Now, Poky,” I soothed. “You know I don’t bite. Let’s see if we can talk this out. Let’s try to be friends.”
Poky’s mouth flopped open. His head tilted to one side, and an ear drooped so low it almost touched the ground.
“Friends!” he gasped. “With coyotes?”
“Of course,” I nodded. “Friends are great. You can never have too many friends.”
“But coyotes . . . !”
I ignored him and turned toward the yellow eyes and white fangs in the corner. “Hello. My name is Sweetie. I’d like to be your friend.”
The coyote only growled. His yellow eyes squinted.
I shrugged. “I’m sure you know stealing is wrong. You didn’t really mean to take Poky’s food without his permission, did you?”
A very big coyote who was hiding in the far corner of Poky’s yard took a step forward.
“It’s been a very cold winter,” he growled. “The rabbits are all gone. We can’t find any lizards, and the people used a big machine to cover up all the garbage at the dump. We’re hungry.”
“Oh,” I gasped, “that’s terrible. I’ve never been hungry, but I’m sure it must be awful.” I reached out a paw and laid it lightly on Poky’s shoulder. “My friend here is a good dog. I’m sure if you had only told him that, he would have been glad to share his food with you.”
“What?” Poky’s eyes popped wide. “I can’t believe you said that.” He dropped his shoulder and shook my paw off. “Share with thieving coyotes? You must be nuts!”
With that, he spun around. His nose in the air on one end and his tail in the air on the other, he trotted on stiff legs back to his doghouse. There he stood beside his food bowl and took a deep breath, trying to make himself look big.
“It’s my food,” he growled. “You know I always get hungry for a midnight snack. If they steal my food, I won’t have any. I ain’t sharin’. I’ll fight for it before I let them steal any more.”
My ears sagged. I heaved a deep sigh and sat down on my haunches. Red limped toward Poky. “Come on, Sweetie. Let’s help the little guy.”
I didn’t follow him.
The big coyote took a step. I stood up. The coyote drew back his paw and trembled.
“Stealing is wrong!” I told the big coyote.
“No, it’s not. It’s the way we coyotes live. We take whatever we find. We get it any way we can. If we’re smart enough and sneaky enough to take it, then it’s ours. That ain’t stealing.”
I turned and shoved one of the boards aside in the fence.
“Then you can have some of my food. I don’t have much left, but I will be glad to share it with you. That way we can be friends.”
The coyotes only glared at me.