Coyotes Quotes

“I was going to fight vampires, and my name wasn't Buffy--I was so screwed.”
― Patricia Briggs, Frost Burned

“Coyotes have the gift of seldom being seen; they keep to the edge of vision and beyond, loping in and out of cover on the plains and highlands. And at night, when the whole world belongs to them, they parley at the river with the dogs, their higher, sharper voices full of authority and rebuke. They are an old council of clowns, and they are listened to.”
― N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn

“We will always have Reeses and Heseltines, and they will always seem big and brave to growing boys. They swagger and make loud noises in their own little circle, but they are only the coyotes that yap around the heels of the herd."
'Remember this, Shell, the coyotes aren't going anywhere, but the herd is, and so are the men who drive the herd.”
― Louis L'Amour, Tucker

“Actually, coyotes are much scarier than wolves. Sneaky, sneaky little suckers. Eat you up. Lick the blood all up.”
― Laird Barron, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All

“Coyote hunting can't be justified on the basis of the damage they do. Shooting coyotes is really just fun, a man with a high-powered rifle trying to see if he can kill a frightened creature that can't shoot back.”
― Ted Kooser

“Well,' he said. 'I seen a lot of coyote sign down here.'
'I ain't surprised,' the old man said. 'They done everything down at our place but come it and set at the table.”
― Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing

“In the distance, mongrel dogs were howling out the coyote portion of their ancestry. All the sounds of the night seemed to pass through a hollow tunnel of indefinite length.”
― Warren Eyster, The Goblins of Eros

“[Curtis Carley, first field coordinator for the Red Wolf Recovery Program] decided early in the project that there was only one possible way of saving red wolves from genetic swamping by coyotes. Biologists were going to have to capture every red wolf remaining in the wild for placement in a captive breeding program. In effect, preserving the red wolf's purity required first bringing about its extinction in the wild and turning its former range over to coyotes and hybrids until biologists could produce enough "pure" animals, then finding a suitable protected preserve for releasing a captive-bred population into the wild again.

How difficult was that? After establishing a certified breeding program for red wolves at Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington, in 1974 and 1975, the Red Wolf Recovery team decided to examine as breeding candidates some fifty red wolves held in almost twenty zoos across the country. Using the morphology-howl criteria they had established, out of those fifty they identified but a single red wolf, a female in the Oklahoma City Zoo. They were convinced all the rest, plus their pups, were actually either coyotes or hybrids, and in the latter case the team insisted they be destroyed. When some of the shocked zoo personnel refused such a draconian order, in the name of purity Curtis Carley carried out the death sentences himself.”
― Dan Flores, Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History

“Coyotes, it turns out, are also a kind of wolf. They shared a common ancestor with gray wolves down to about 3.2 million years ago, when coyote and gray wolf ancestors began to separate, first geographically, then, as distance increased, genetically.”
― Dan Flores, Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History

“Coyote power: surviving by one's intelligence and wits when others cannot; embracing existence in a mad, dancing, laughing, sympathetic expression of pure joy at evading the grimmest of fates; exulting in sheer aliveness; recognizing our shortcomings with rueful chagrin. These are the values Old Man America has embodied for thousands of years.”
― Dan Flores, Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History

“Okay, I thought wolves had packs. Do you have a pack?”
“Not in the traditional sense.”
“Sorry, Nick, but when it comes to werewolves, I don’t know what the traditional sense is.”
“I don’t run with other wolves.”
I nod. I wait. I finally give up and say, “So you run with . . .”
He winces. “Coyotes. But they have some wolf DNA.”
It’s hard not to smile. “You are alpha at least, right?”
“Of course I’m alpha.” He almost growls at me.”
― Carrie Jones, Need

“The past few weeks, I've been seeing coyote hunters during the day with their jeeps and pickups parked by the road, talking into walkie-talkies, dead-serious looks on their faces. In their camouflage clothes, they look like members of a SWAT team about to break into a methamphetamine lab. They must imagine that there's some danger. Are the coyotes armed and dangerous?”
― Ted Kooser, Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps

“... coyotes enjoy no governmental protection against being killed.”
― Dan Flores, Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History

“If you want me, come fight me," she suggested with a laugh. "I dare you."

Every Coyote there perked up.

"A thousand on the girl," the leader murmured.

"Shut the fuck up, Dog," Malcolm raged furiously.

"I got your thousand on the prick there. He has muscle where she doesn't." Loki took the bet before turning to the other two. "Mutt, Mongrel? You two in?"

"Thousand on the girl." Gray Eyes took him up on it.

"Thousand on the prick." The last one accepted the bet.

Malcolm was shaking with fury.

Diane smiled in anticipation.

"Knives or fists?" she asked, knowing his strengths as well as his weaknesses.

"You fucking whore," he snarled.

"Take the challenge or walk away," Dog snapped. "We won't take her without the fight."

God love a Coyote's heart and his love of a good challenge or a good bet.

"I win, we walk away," she demanded as she kept her eyes on Malcolm.

Dog's smile was clearly anticipatory, but he nodded easily. "Whip his ass and you walk. He whips yours--you run. How's that?"

Diane gave a sharp, firm nod as she smiled at Malcolm. "It's a bet.”
― Lora Leigh, Lawe's Justice

“However, the man was wrong. It wasn’t a hundred coyotes with bullhorns howling at once and it wasn’t the Devil himself. The things that had screamed that night was the soul of a shattered, hurt mother facing the loss of everything she loved, and that is something even the Devil should fear.”
― Gabino Iglesias, Coyote Songs