A woman was spending the night at an RV park in a native reservation near Albuquerque, NM. The next morning, she noticed a coyote and followed it. It eventually transformed into a elder native man.

I recently came across the following account:

"A few years back, after a divorce I ended up homeless and living in an RV (caravan) for about a year. I was offered a job 3000 miles away from my ex, and it seemed like a good idea at the time, so my two small dogs and I started driving west.

In western New Mexico, outside Albuquerque, we stopped at a Native casino and RV park for the night. It was a very nice park, the bathhouse was huge and meticulously clean, the sort of place where tourists weren’t allowed to feel uncomfortable while camping next to miles of wilderness desert in the middle of the Reservation. I was just glad they didn’t turn us out for being in a 40 year old small RV - other parks had. Turns out RV living is only ok if it’s obviously a choice instead of a need.

The next morning, I checked outside my door before letting my two small dogs out. There are a lot of things that would be happy to snack on a toy poodle! Sure enough, a coyote was exploring the area.

I’m used to east coast coyotes that will take off as soon as they see you’re a full-sized human. So I hopped out, left my pups locked up, and made sure I didn’t make eye contact as I went towards the bathhouse. I nodded and greeted him politely as I went by.

He was still there when I came out.

I told him it would be appreciated if he gave us some space so my kids could come out for their bathroom breaks before we got back on the road. He huffed at me and started walking down the dirt road out into the bush. After a few steps he turned and looked back at me - so I followed behind him by about 30 feet or so.

Just for the record, following a coyote into the desert at dawn probably wasn’t the wisest decision to make. I was very careful not to leave the dirt road.

There was a natural clump of three boulders about 10 to 12 feet tall within easy eyeshot of the casino. The coyote calmly walked around the rocks. And then from the other side, moving at the same casual pace, came on older Native gentleman. His hair was in braids to his waist, he was wearing old jeans, blue gingham shirt and a woven hat. He tipped his hat at me and kept walking east out into the bush.

That was when a raven I hadn’t seen started laughing at me from the top of the tallest boulder. The bird took off, flying east, and in the light of sunrise seemed to shift from black to white to orangey-red in color.

I wished them both a kind day, hoofed it back to the park, and broke camp in record time.

Ravens and crows followed me for the entire time I lived on the west coast. Even when I would walk to work, there were three that paced me every day. Now that I’m back on the east coast I kind of miss them." MR

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