As a long-time volunteer for Toronto Wildlife Centre, I've been privileged to have been involved in rescues and releases of countless wild animals.
When I got a call letting me know that a coyote was ready to go back home, I jumped at the chance to be involved. He had arrived at TWC after having been found by a resident of Durham Region, who had reported seeing a thin, furless and sickly coyote using her garage for shelter.
I shared the release with three other volunteers - Craig, Jeremy and Sara - and the kind lady that found the coyote, all of us experiencing the nervous excitement that is there each and every time we're helping an animal get back home. I can only describe the moments leading up to the release as a euphoric sadness - so happy that the animal is now healthy and ready to go back to live the life it was meant to, and at the same time wondering about its future as it continues to lose habitat (407 expansion) and face the daily challenges all urban wildlife face.
It always takes me a while to find the perfect release site, and through experience I've gotten pretty good at predicting the path an animal will take. When I finally settled on a spot, my first hope was that the coyote would head for a forest adjacent to the farm property. My second hope was that he would walk through the only moon beam in that field so that I could capture this memory with my camera. This night, both my hopes were realized.
I always wonder if an animal who has been helped by humans is aware. Somehow, I felt like this coyote knew.
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| The only moon beam in this very large field and the coyote walked through it. Beautiful. |
