Flaming Coyotes

Today I attended a fire safety class at Monsanto (partially b/c it was Friday and allowed me to spend time outside and partially b/c we had the kitchen fire the other day and I thought it might be interesting).

They gave a talk on fire safety and how to use fire extinguishers (and info on how we can order them at Monsanto's discounted rate ;-) ) and then we went outside for a live demonstration and examples.

As we were walking outside to an old parking lot on campus that is no longer used, one of the teachers joked that they had seen a coyote when they had arrived that morning. Well there it was still, in a small field between us and the parking lot, laying down. The thing was small/medium in size (think decent sized dog but very lean). When we got closer it got up and trotted off a bit watching us and eventually jogged away toward some wooded areas.

Now, I have seen foxes and such on several occasions (mostly up at our cabin) and have seen various wildlife in urban and semi-urban areas numerous times (seeing a deer with Josh in Oakwood and one walking around our apt. in Cinci come to mind) but I can't say I was expecting to see a decent sized predator in the middle of St. Louis. Even considering some of the nearby semi-wooded areas.

After that we got to put out a 3'x3' pan of gasoline fire. All in all it was an interesting morning. :)