On the Road

This morning I was driving north on Route 22 on my way to Rupert, Vermont. In a fairly remote area, between farmhouses, but alongside the cornfields, were two peacocks, walking casually on the side of the road. No, they weren't pheasants, or quail, or any type of domestic poultry, but authentic peacocks, or maybe peahens, because neither bird had its tail unfurled. But they weren't trying to make an impression on anybody, they were just feeding in an ordinary manner. I don't know if a farmer had raised them and they were merely touring their usual area, or if they'd escaped, or been turned loose from one of the defunct zoos in that neck of the woods. I know it was kind of pleasant to see them, even if not in their natural habitat because it was such a nice day neither they nor I was thinking of what they'll do when winter comes. I had to repeat the trip later in the day, as the paperwork I'd gone to pick up was not complete in the morning, and at about 6:00p.m. was making my second return trip home when a large animal entered the road from my left directly into the path of my car, causing me to brake. Again in the cornfield district, my first instinctive thought was that it was a deer, but it was not a deer. It was a grayish buff color and then I thought a coyote, but it seemed way too large for that. Wolf entered my mind, but maybe it wasn't that big. So I think it must have been a coydog. I've heard of them, but never seen one and come to think of it,I've never seen a coyote either. I've seen plenty of dogs, and I know it wasn't a dog. It moved really fast, in kind of a sideways lope, and in broad daylight. I kind of liked seeing it too, once I knew I wasn't going to hit it with my car. Can't wait for tomorrow.....