In our years of tracking, my friend Sonnie and I began to get a better sense of the animals who live where we live. Some of this information was for a southwestern environmental group that wanted to know about not only black bears and mountain lions but also any threatened and endangered species, such as ornate box turtles and New Mexico meadow jumping mice. In particular, Sonnie and I dreamed of finding the track of the endangered and reintroduced Mexican gray wolf, and I remember literal dreams, waking up to think this had just happened. I was in a red rock canyon with high yellow cliffs. No, I was running along a trail, watching the ground and then stopping, stopped as if someone held my arm, before that symmetrical shape and those sharp claw marks.

We dreamed of wolves but, honestly, a New Mexico meadow jumping mouse would have been as exciting. Miniaturization has such strong appeal. A perfect quarter inch mouse track is something you will never forget. You’ve really fallen into another world now, everything else so much bigger, exhilarating and frightening at the same time.

What Walks This Way: Discovering the Wildlife Around Us Through Their Tracks and Signs