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A Nice Canadian Man Drove A Dog To Safety After He Hit It With His Car And Whoops It Was Actually A Coyote

CNN- Eli Boroditsky was driving to his night shift last week on a narrow rural road in Manitoba, Canada, when his car hit what he thought was a dog streaking across the dark road. After he clipped the animal, it flew into the ditch on the shoulder. He parked and used a small flashlight to get a look. “I thought it was a German shepherd or a husky,” he told CNN news partner CBC. “I didn’t think it was a wild animal.” Boroditsky said he was reluctant to leave it lying on the side of the road. “It is amazing how docile it was. I was petting it,” he said. So, to protect it from predators in the night, he picked up the animal and laid it on the floor of his Hyundai. Boroditsky drove the last mile or so for his 10 p.m. shift at the Bothwell Cheese factory in New Bothwell, Manitoba, just south of Winnipeg. But a coworker went out to look at the animal and delivered him a big surprise. That “dog,” the coworker said, was actually a coyote.

It wasn’t immediately obvious it was wild animal. The coyote was only about 30 pounds and seemed tame, though hurt. But Boroditsky’s coworkers, who had more experience with animals, said it looked to be a young female coyote. It was Tuesday night, and Boroditsky started researching where he could take the coyote to get care. But he was told he’d need to wait until the morning for someone in animal management to come pick her up. Over the next 11 hours, the coyote didn’t even defecate or urinate while spending the night in the relative warmth of Boroditsky’s car. 

It’s pretty common to say, “That’s the most Canadian thing ever” but this might actually be the most Canadian thing ever. A nice Canadian man tried to do the right thing after he accidentally clipped a dog with his car by picking it up and driving it to safety and whoops it actually turned out to be a wild coyote. It all turned out okay because the injured coyote didn’t eat his face but that could’ve gone badly in a hurrrrrrrrrrrry. One second you think you’re helping out a wounded-but-domesticated animal and then next second the wild animal you’ve allowed to enter your back seat is ripping out your throat.

In the friendly Canadian guy’s defense, this could happen to anyone. I’m serious it really could. Huskies have muddied the waters as to what is a dog and what is a coyote. It’s actually amazing anyone can tell the difference between a husky and a coyote and/or wolf. They’re basically identical. It’s not like the guy thought he hit a golden retriever and it turned out to be a coyote. That won’t ever happen, but mistaking a coyote for husky? Incredibly plausible and the guy is lucky he’s still alive.

By the way, the guy’s heart was absolutely in the right place. You gotta be a real monster to clip a dog-looking animal and just keep it moving like nothing happened. You gotta stop and do something.  It’s just that sometimes you pick up a lovable husky and sometimes you pick up a blood thirsty coyote, that’s life.