Life on the edge of nature.

Our house may have a small yard, or almost no yard, as is the tradition of greedy southern California developers. But we still consider ourselves lucky. The reason: our house backs up to a large hill that is all county land. Ergo, behind our house is nothing but nature.

We love that. It's like having Wild Kingdom at our back door. In a recent blog, I described how a sharp-shinned hawk silently swooped down and almost snared Java, our beloved Ocicat, while I was walking her in our back patio. And this morning, I looked out our kitchen window at a young adult coyote walking behind our house. It was one of those moments I really enjoy: not even 10 feet from me, the coyote and I exchanged looks for over a minute before he trotted on. He might be a predator, but we're worlds apart, the human world and the animal kingdom separated by a low wall that is the border of our property. He looked healthy, but sad. So long as he brings no harm to our kitten, we would never bring harm to him. Part of me wanted to help him, but doing so would be his undoing. So I could take solace in the moment we shared, and wished him well.

He won't need the luck. By the many calls I hear at night right behind our house, I can tell he's a good hunter.

We're so lucky to have a world of nature behind our home. Every dawn brings something new. And it is a reminder to us that we have the responsibility to support this. In fact, we all do.