Coyote: Harried by the Pack

Your heel found a burrow hole, and the moment you went down the whole pack arrived at once, calves, forearms, the back of your neck, teeth from every direction while you curled and kicked. Something scattered them at last, but you crawled to the road leaking from a dozen places, and the doctor works past midnight counting punctures by lamplight.

• Bites on both arms and both legs, stitched and wicked, bed rest, then short walks only, for 7 days
• Blood loss leaves you gray and dizzy on your feet; beef broth and iron tonic by the doctor's order
• A torn scalp wound at the hairline where one got close to what it wanted
• /me moves like a man made of stitches, one careful joint at a time

Recovery 7 days under a doctor's roof to be sure none of the dozen wounds turns; alone and untended, a man this bitten may just not wake·Doctor, urgently

They pulled you down twice between the creek and the fence line, and both times you came up swinging with new holes in you. Forearms, calves, one bite high on the shoulder, no single wound worth a bonesaw, but together they make a long night's stitching.

• Multiple bite sites bound, no riding at speed or heavy work for 6 days
• Both forearms bandaged; sleeves ruined, shirts borrowed
• You move stiff as a new boot the first three mornings

Recovery 6 days stitched and dressed with care, twice that raw·Doctor, urgently

Three of them harried and feinted, but the fourth got your forearm and hung on through everything, running, falling, beating at it with your free fist. When it finally dropped off at the fence, it took a strip of you along.

• Forearm torn and stitched, that arm carries nothing heavier than a coffee cup for 5 days
• Nip wounds on both calves, washed and bandaged
• A ragged scar in the making that will do your lying for you

Recovery 5 days sutured and slung, 10 without care·Doctor required

No single bite was much, and that is the trick of a pack, a dozen small mouths of damage, ankle to elbow, each one bleeding its little share. By the time you reached the light you had left a trail, and the doctor spends the evening going wound to wound like a man paying debts.

• Many small punctures and tears cleaned and dressed, light duty only for 5 days
• Weak and cotton-headed from steady blood loss; you eat like a harvest hand for days
• /me is more bandage than shirt below the elbows

Recovery 5 days of dressings and red meat, 9 or more untended·Doctor required

You cleaned the bites you could see and forgot the one behind your knee, and it remembered you. Three days of it swelling hot and tight, and now the doctor lances it and a shameful amount of matter comes away.

• Lanced abscess behind the knee, packed and drained, no long rides for 4 days
• A low fever that breaks the second night after the lancing
• Every other bite checked twice daily now, on your own insistence

Recovery 4 days once it is opened and drained; unlanced, it only grows·Doctor required

It was not the teeth that got you worst, it was the badger hole you found at a dead run in the dark with four sets of jaws behind you. The knee wrenched sideways, and you fought the rest of it half-crippled on the ground until they broke off.

• Wrenched knee splinted, no crouching or hard riding for 4 days
• Nip punctures on the forearms from fighting low, cleaned and wicked
• /me comes down porch steps sideways, one hand on the rail like an old man

Recovery 4 days splinted and rested, 8 if you keep working it loose·Doctor required

They worked at your boots and calves the whole quarter mile, quick lunges from behind and gone before your kick landed. Below the knee you are a map of punctures and grazes, and both boots look like they were dragged behind a wagon.

• Both calves bandaged, walking is a chore and running a bad joke for 3 days
• Punctures drained and carbolic-washed morning and night
• Boots chewed past pride but not past use

Recovery 3 days of dressings, 6 if the wet gets in·Doctor required

You found a boulder to put behind you and made your stand, and the price of it was your hands and forearms, every lunge you beat away left a tooth mark somewhere. They gave up before you did, which is the only arithmetic that matters.

• Both hands and forearms bitten and bandaged, gripping is misery for 3 days, gun work slow
• Knuckles split from swinging at hard skulls
• You keep a wall at your back in crowds for a few days without meaning to

Recovery 3 days dressed and salved, 6 raw·Doctor required

You never stopped moving and neither did they, a quarter mile of feints and nips, teeth clipping trouser and boot and now and then the flesh beneath. You arrived at the fire bleeding from a few honest holes and wearing clothes fit for a scarecrow.

• Nip punctures on the calves and one thigh, tender walking for 2 days
• Trousers torn in three places and the coat hem shredded
• Every wound whiskey-washed in one hissing, cussing session by the fire

Recovery 2 days kept clean, 4 neglected·Doctor advised

Heavy wool and a long hem saved you, most of the pack got mouthfuls of coat while you kept your feet and kept moving. What reached the skin beneath is a scatter of shallow nips, more insult than injury.

• Shallow nips on the legs and one hip, stinging for 2 days
• A good coat torn in five places, now a working coat
• The habit of counting shapes at the edge of firelight

Recovery 2 days, nothing a clean bandage doesn't cover·Doctor advised

Your horse held just long enough, and you went up the side of it with one coyote swinging off your boot heel like a fish on a line. It dropped away at the first buck, and you left the pack yipping in the hoof-dust.

• Ankle wrenched in the stirrup scramble, favor it for 2 days
• Punctures through the boot top, shallow and clean
• Your horse gets the good oats and every apology you own

Recovery 2 days wrapped, 4 if you keep testing it·Doctor advised

You got to the campfire a stride ahead of them and turned with a burning length of cottonwood in your fist, and the night went all eyes and retreat. The cost of the swinging was a palmful of blisters and one nip that landed before the flame changed the conversation.

• Blistered palm bandaged, rope and rein work sting for 2 days
• One shallow bite on the calf, washed with whiskey
• /me turns a charred length of cottonwood in the coals, keeping it near to hand

Recovery 2 days for palm and puncture both·Doctor advised

The bites are a scatter of small nothings, cleaned in an evening, but coyotes do not press a grown man with a fire lit, not sound ones. So which of the four was wrong in the head, and was it the one that broke skin? That question pulls up a chair and stays.

• A handful of shallow nips, bandaged and near healed in 2 days
• You watch every wound for heat, and yourself for the horror of water, morning and night
• /me stops mid-sentence when a yip carries across the dark, and listens too long

Recovery 2 days for the skin; the question stays as long as it likes·Doctor advised

Bruised shins from lunges that mostly met boot leather, a coat hem chewed to fringe, and one shallow nip above the knee. You kept your feet, kept your direction, and lost nothing but tailoring.

• Bruised shins and one shallow nip, tender for a day or two
• Coat hem and one trouser cuff chewed ragged

Recovery A day or two, kept clean·No doctor needed

For all the circling and noise, exactly one tooth reached you, a single puncture in the back of the calf, small and clean. Four coyotes worked a quarter hour for that. You call it a victory and mean it.

• Single puncture bandaged, a slight hitch in your walk for a day
• A small round scar and a large round story

Recovery A day or two·No doctor needed

In the dark and the scramble you hit brush, rock and once your own knee, the coyotes barely touched you, but you beat yourself up handsomely on their behalf. Skinned knuckles, a barked shin, one shallow scratch you cannot swear was even teeth.

• Skinned knuckles and a barked shin, sore for 2 days, nothing slowed
• One faint scratch on the forearm, washed on principle

Recovery 2 days of ordinary aches·No doctor needed

You went up a rock pile like a lizard and sat above the reach of them until they got bored, which took longer than your dignity did. Scraped palms and a torn trouser knee are the entire butcher's bill.

• Scraped palms that sting on rope for a day
• An hour of your life spent treed by animals the size of dogs, which you will be telling differently

Recovery A day, mostly for pride·No doctor needed

Boots, chaps and coat took every tooth the pack could offer, and not one point found skin. Your gear looks like it was in a knife fight, and you walked out of the dark without a scratch to show the fire.

• Untouched, boots and chaps scarred with tooth marks
• Gear that tells the story before you can start it

Recovery Nothing to heal, saddle soap and thread for the rest·No doctor needed

It was never you they wanted. You dropped the brace of rabbits off your belt, and the whole pack broke off mid-lunge to argue over them, you walked away whole from a robbery, not an attack.

• Not a mark on you, supper is another matter
• /me spreads empty hands at the campfire. 'The rabbits paid my toll.'

Recovery Nothing to heal, just a supper to replace·No doctor needed

You stood your ground at the fire with a brand in one hand and a pistol in the other, and when the boldest one lunged you dropped it in the air by starlight. The rest were gone before it landed. Come morning there are four sets of tracks leaving at a dead run, and one pelt worth money.

• Not a scratch on you, and a coyote pelt on the saddle to prove the tale
• A one-shot-by-starlight story with living witnesses in the pack that ran
• /me taps the pelt tied behind the saddle. 'The other three carried the news.'

Recovery Nothing to heal, just a pelt to scrape·No doctor needed