I nuzzled up to my mothers soft, beautiful fur. I had just taken my first raspy breaths of life and I am very tired. I will rest for the night and grow up to be one of the worst victims of human’s cruel treatment. I am Birch, a coyote. The last year for me has been the worst, I lost my mate, my pups, my happiness, and now my life is a huge nightmare. Now I am stuck in this cage and the future is uncertain. Most people think of coyotes as stupid, black-hearted killers and thieves, but they never even tried to see what we are truly like. Sure, we kill animals, but just for food and only to eat, never for fun, or sport, or any other stupid thing that humans kill animals for. Maybe we steal stuff, but when we see an easy meal, why shouldn’t we take it, hunting is really hard. But we coyotes are defiantly NOT stupid and NOT black-hearted. We have families and pups that we love, we can feel happy or sad, be in pain, or feel sick; just like any animal. Anyway, when I was a pup, I was happy. I love my brothers and sisters, my parents, my home, and I just loved to be alive. When I left my home, I found a nice quiet wood where I could live. Wile I was in the wood, I found another coyote on my territory. I tackled it, but then I realized that this coyote was a female, her name was Tally. We fell in love and had six little baby pups, I was SOOOO proud and my life was going great. But then, my life was started heading downhill.

It all started when all the prey started to disappear! One day, I went out to investigate and found that humans where killing all the prey for sport. When I told Tally, she was worried. What will happen to the pups? But I assured her that they will be fine as long as we can find some food. She wasn’t convinced. For the fall, my whole family had to survive on about two mice a week and the rest of the food was berries and junk.

 One day I found a dead rabbit just laying there. Well, I thought of it as the perfect dinner for the pups, so I took it to the den. Tally was overjoyed and fed it to the pups. The pups ate in their little order when the strongest goes first and the weakest goes last, I thought that was stupid, but as long as all the pups get food, it doesn’t matter, so I let them eat like that, and it saved the life of four of our pups. The first pup was a male named Luke; he ate until he almost threw up. The second pup, Lily, ate what she needed and saved the rest for her siblings. Just as the third pup, Lyco, a male, was about to eat, Tally became stiff. Then she grabbed the rabbit right from under Lyco nose and buried it quickly, as if she was in panic. Lyco was upset, and I was confused. Tally could sense our confusion and she just said in grim words “poison.” I gasped and grunted angrily. Why in the world would those stupid humans try to poison us?!

The next day, the two pups that ate the tainted meat, Luke and Lily, died. Tally was howling and crying with a mixture of distress and sorrow. I comforted her and reminded her that we still have to watch out for our four remaining pups and everything will get better if we are more careful, but boy was I wrong.

 A few days later, we heard a crack, then a huge CRASH!! I jumped a mile and went out to investigate; well, actually, I looked up and saw a huge yellow monster through a few yards away. Tally gasped and started shaking. “What are we going to do?” she asked. You could tell that she was on the hinge of panic, but she contained herself so she wouldn’t get the pups worried.

 “I don’t know.” I whispered. I was sure that she could hear the panic in my voice.

“What’s going on?” asked Storm, the youngest pup.

 “Don’t worry little one.” Tally said with a calm, gentle tone. I was half impressed that she could talk like that at a time like this and half scared for the four remaining pups.

“Are you sure?” asked Luna, the second to youngest pup. Tally affectionately pressed her muzzle against Luna’s warm trembling body, but said nothing. Then she nudged me away from the pups and whispered, “We have to leave, it is our only choice.” I hesitated and nodded, then I hung my head, I didn’t want to leave. Tally fixed her eyes on the ground for a moment than looked up at me. She smiled faintly and licked my cheek. “We are in this together, no matter what. That has to count for something”

“It does,” I whimpered. Tally turned to the four confused pups. “We must go to a new land” Tally told the pups as calm as possible.

“Why?” wined Silver, the fourth oldest pup.”

 “B-Be-Because,” I stuttered.

Tally sighed and told them. “Humans are coming to the forest making it unsafe for us to live here,” she said quietly.

 “WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!” Storm wailed out.

“No,” I said firmly, “we are NOT going to die!” Storm was unconvinced and that made the other pups think the same. Storm ran to me and cried in front of me, then I laid down and he buried his face in my coat. I put a comforting paw over his back and drew my tail over his body. The other pups cried out to and Tally instinctively ran to them and drew the three pups close to her body and licked each one in turn. Storm was sobbing. I touched his nose with mine and curled up into a ball, completely surrounding the horrified pup. I moved my muzzle closer to his ear. “Don’t worry,” I whispered, “I won’t let you die.”

The next morning, we set on our journey to find a new land. We didn’t know which way to go, so we just traveled away from the big yellow monsters. I carried Storm on my back and Silver in my jaws, wile Tally carried Lyco and Luna. We traveled and traveled and traveled even more, but everywhere we went, there were human towns.

I think it was the ninth day we traveled, we came a medal track. I put Storm and Silver down and told Tally to watch them. I wandered out onto the wide track. I sniffed it. “Train,” I whispered to myself. “This is a train track!” I called to Tally and the pups. “It should be safe unless a…” I trailed off. I looked to the left and heard the Defining rumble of the giant medal machine. By the time I was looking back to tell the group to stay where they were, Tally, followed by the pups, were about half way across the track. “RUN!” I yowled and turned tail and ran in blind panic. Tally and the pups did the same. No one noticed Silver stop suddenly when her paw got caught between the tracks.

 “HELP” she cried, but her squeaky howl was lost as the train raced into view. Tally and the other pups sprinted safely to the other side and I ran back to greet them. Then Tally saw her helpless pup ran back onto the track to save her. I was horrified to see my mate and one of my pups out on the track like that. Tally grabbed Silvers scruff and pulled with all her might. Silver let out a yelp of pain but she remained stuck. I raced onto the track and grabbed Silver’s body in my powerful jaws. With a violent jerk, Silver’s paw popped free. Tally grabbed my scruff and yanked me towards safety.

 “COME ON,” she howled and the three of us dove out of the way just in time. I panted heavily and squeezed Silver against my chest in relief as she cried wile returning to reality from her petrified state. Tally wedged her paw between us and drew Silver towards her and licked her rapidly, but our trouble was far from over.

As we were passing through a yard of in one of the town, we spotted a dish with brown pellets in it. They smelled good, so I tried one and my hunger died down a bit. I was about to dig in when I remembered that I had a family to feed. I stepped aside saying, its safe. Then Tally sniffed the food and tried one pellet. I was sure she had the same reaction as me. “It’s safe, dig in,” she stated. The pups attacked to food.

 “You eat some.” I told Tally. “You need the strength.” She licked me affectionately and nosed her way into the food. I watched my family eat and Tally signaled with her tail for me to eat some. I hesitated and trotted over. I ate one pellet at a time and restrained myself from taking to much. As we all were eating, a dog a bit bigger then me leaped from the bushed and clamped its giant teeth around Tally’s bony leg. She yelped with pain as the dog dragged her a few feet and swung her around as she collided with the fence and lay motionless. I was horror-struck, but snapped out of it as a lunged at the dog. My teeth met its fur and it yelped. It shook me off and pinned me to the ground with saliva dripping from its messy jaws. I twisted around slipped from the dogs grasp. I curled my lips back and protectively put myself in between the dog and the pups. The dog ran at me and I pushed the pups aside and ordered them to run. The four bundles of fur stumbled and tripped to safety. I launched a vicious attack for the dog’s throat and sprang. The dog’s floppy ears got in my way and I just missed the target and instead got the ear. It yelped and threw me to the ground. Then it sprang at me, but I rolled over and attacked its side. Then it hit me with its massive paw and I fell to the ground. The dog sunk its teeth into my shoulder and I yelped loudly. Just then, Lyco sprinted to the dog and grabbed its tail. The dog looked around and forcefully jerked its tail. Lyco tumbled to the ground as the dog trapped him in those powerful jaws. The dog turned to me with Lyco’s limp body in its mouth and dropped him. Tally gained consciousness and leaped for the dog. She tackled it to the ground and bit it. It yelped and struggled to its feet and turned tail and fled. Tally nudged Lycos lifeless body and howled a low sad song. The remaining pups cried and snuggled up to Tally, all except Storm. He ran to me and dug through my fur searching for safety. I grasped him in my jaws and I stood beside Tally who looked at me, on the verge of tears, then cried into my coat. She lay down and I sat next to her. I let a few tears escape me.

 “What was that thing?” asked Silver, between tearful breaths.

 “That was a dog,” I

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