Editor’s note: The writer is a resident of Portsmouth.

After all those rainy days poured down upon us recently, I found myself idly staring out the window at a passing patch of sunlight.

It’s not a particularly scenic view of the great outdoors, but rather a sea of asphalt and parked cars. To my surprise, a coyote trotted from the street and past my window. This is certainly an odd occurrence for me, as I feel so disconnected from nature while sitting at a computer in a brick building surrounded by busy streets in the heart of this quite developed city.

My naïve musings were quickly broken by two police officers in cautious pursuit. They followed the coyote around my building and over the railroad tracks into a small patch of woods, a vacant lot. I watched as guns were drawn and I suddenly felt sad. I felt sad for this coyote about to be executed for being a coyote. eets in the heart of this quite developed city.

I held my breath a few moments while I waited for the shot that would extinguish this moment of wildlife passing before me. It was two shots.

I do not know the story of this coyote. What brought him to the streets of Portsmouth? What were his crimes? Did he have rabies or threaten a pet or eat someone’s dog food? The officers, without question, were professional and safe and just doing their duty to protect us. I imagine they are sad as well. I offer them no criticism.

We live and work on the edges of an ecosystem so much greater than us. A visitor from the Great Bog is not always welcome here and we shut out what we don’t want to think about. We continually encroach into the territory that belongs to the deer and the coyote and the bear without much consideration. We pave over their beds and kitchens and then become alarmed when they have nowhere to go but into our neighborhoods.

We relish the idea that nature exists out there, but don’t seem to welcome coexistence very well. We are upset if a deer eats our garden and alarmed when a bear raids the birdseed that we put in our yards. We hype fears about coyotes where none should really exist. Without doubt, a non-rabid animal would much prefer finding its own way back into the woods than be chased by the police.

I have been face-to-face with many coyotes before and, really, most of our fears are based on false information - fear of the unknown and the wild.

We live in a culture of fear that causes palpable stress in our lives. The economy is tanking, the coyote will eat my children, and the terrorists are out to get us all. It speaks volumes to me when our response to a 25-pound animal hardly 500 yards from a landscape entirely his own is to kill it.

I felt sad for us.