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It was a normal day at the dog playground. Normal, until I heard rumors from Aniro and a few of the others that there was a gang of rogue coyotes that had wandered from the deserts to the west of the dog suburbs in search of food and that they could attack our playground. Me, Sombra, a brownish orange Alaskan Malamutt, Tommyfox, an arctic fox with a tuft of black hair, currently a good friend of mine, and Ziggo, an orange and white Sabertooth Tiger/Corgi hybrid with green hipster shades, all sat cross-legged around our leader Aniro as he lectured us about coyotes.

"They think of pups like us as easy snacks," said Aniro. Aniro was a blue wolf dragon with green hair. His face was wolf like, but he had a dragon's tail and long, gargoyle-esque wings. "They'll move into our houses slaughtering everything and strike fear with their howling," continued Aniro.

"Everything?" I gulped.

"Yes," replied Aniro affirmatively, "And they'll use our tendons to clean their teeth!"

"What are tendons?" I whimpered. I didn't really want to know.

"They are the muscles that make you able to bend your arms and legs under all that blue and white fur so without them you couldn't pull a sled, you derpy blue and white Husky," replied Aniro.

"Well, good thing I'm paper trained," I said trying to make a joke, "otherwise right now I just would've-

"You dog," scoffed Aniro.

I laughed a little, grinning.

"Don't they get closer the more you think about them?" asked Tommyfox, "you know, like Slenderhound?"

"Yes," replied Aniro, "because they can smell fear a mile away."

"And do they leave eight pieces of paper around in the woods that you have to go find?" laughed Ziggo, referring to an infamous myth about Slenderhound.

"Shut up, CatDog," replied Aniro, laughing a little himself.

"What if I gave him 20 bones?" I added, grinning. That was another stupid rumor. Slenderhound didn't scare me. I knew he wasn't real. But this was.

"See," I replied suddenly almost without warning, "it's times like this where I wish I had a gun, 'cause if I was older I'd just go out with a fifty gage or an SKS and shoot the gravy out of 'em!"

I had to say it. I live down south in the country, and I try to hide my fear by making a joke. That's not from living in the country, that's just me. But where I'm from, if something's not right, we get our guns.

"You WOULD say that, Nitro," scoffed Aniro.

"Yepp," I replied, "that's the BEST way to kill something!"

"But," continued Aniro, "as bad as they are, they are still canine. They are nowhere near as bad as...CATS."

We all growled as soon as he said that word.

"Wait," said Ziggo, "I'm part cat!"

"You're still more of a dog," said Aniro, "so you're fine."

Ziggo looked very confused.

"However," continued Aniro, "coyotes tend to teach killing in mass numbers to their young."

That little note made me even more nervous. I mean, it was okay for my dad teaching me how to shoot a BB gun and have me watch him shoot targets with his fifty gage, but those were just targets. Even though I'm the second oldest of our group, below Sombra, I'm still a puppy. We are all still puppies. I couldn't imagine killing something at my age with only my claws and my fangs.

"In fact," said Aniro, "One time, my cousin knew a guy who...knew a guy who was attacked by three coyotes."

"W-what happened?" I stammered. I really didn't want to know.

"He survived, but he ended up missing an eye and one of his legs was left a bloody mess. You could see the bone."

I wondered how I could reply to that. How do I turn that into a joke? "Come on Nitro," I thought, "THINK!"

"It's not like I haven't seen a bone before," I said, "but I haven't seen one still attached to someone's body!"

"To be fair," said Sombra, "how do we know this really happened?"

"Oh, trust me I know," said Aniro.

Sombra pulled me aside.

"Don't worry Nitro," she said, "I don't think he's telling the truth. Personally, I'm not worried at all."

"Really?" I answered in shock.

"Yes. Look, I know I don't know you that well, as you are always hanging out with Tommyfox and the other males, but what I DO know is that you are fine with some things that scare me to death."

"Like what?"

"I would never go into a haunted house at night," said Sombra, "I would never go into an ABANDONED house at night!"

Sombra laughed sheepishly.

She was right. I'm not scared of ghosts. In fact, one day I want to join a ghost hunting team. But what did that have to do with anything? Girls are weird.

"But the point is," she continued, "you're getting a fur in a bunch over nothing. And who knows? Maybe there is a pup among these coyotes who is just as scared as you."

"Maybe," I said.

The day passed by and I kept thinking of what Sombra had said to me. Maybe there was even something or someone waiting for me.

The day went on. Usually we all play frisbee, play tug o' war, or even watch Aniro breathe fire as high in the sky as he can (that's one of my favorite things), but Aniro told us that it would be better if we kept to ourselves that day. Usually, I hang around with Tommyfox, but entertaining myself was hard. I wanted to go to the science convention up north that me, Tommyfox, and Aniro went to about two weeks ago again. I thought about how they dipped a squeaky bone in liquid nitrogen and it started squeaking by itself really fast. Or the liquid nitrogen klong treat I had. Or when they blew stuff up. I thought about how pawesome all of that was.

I was trying to have fun by myself on one of the bacon seesaws. It's about as fun as watching kibble being poured that you can't eat until it's all in the bowl. And no, you can't eat the seesaws. I learned that the hard way. But then I saw an arctic fox that I knew all too well.

"Hey, Tommyfox!" I said, "what are you doing here?"

"Eh, nothin' much, just breaking the rules," he said, giving off his signature laugh, a high pitched giggle that sounded like a hyena, "I mean, come on, playing by yourself? That's stupid."

"You fox," I joked. Foxes are known for two things: There's a lot of 'em, and they are crafty, always looking for ways to break the rules.

"No, I'm dead serious," said Tommyfox, "I want to play with everyone. You and I are going to stop this right now. Are ya in?"

"Sure, buddy," I said as I got off the seesaw. Then I felt a sharp jolt of pain in my foot paw and whimpered.

"Whatsa matter?" Asked Tommyfox.

I looked down and saw that I had stepped on a piece of glass.

"Dude that's serious! I'll bet one of those 'yotes planted them there!" Shouted Tommyfox.

"Not so loud," I replied, "what If Aniro hears us?"

"Then we kick him in his dragon balls."

I laughed.

"Wait," said Tommyfox, "even worse...what if the coyotes hear us!"

"Shut up!" I shouted, almost whining. Why did I do that? I guess I was still shaken from Aniro's lecture.

"You'd better put that piece of glass in the dumpster," warned Tommyfox, "I'll bet those coyotes rigged it to explode so that you're an easy meal! You're not bleeding are you?"

I checked. No blood, just a scrape across my paw pad. Ouch. Every step I took felt like walking across blacktop in the middle of August. I decided to make a run for it. I don't mind explosions. They're pretty cool actually, but that's because usually it don't involve me or any living thing getting destroyed.

"No hug goodbye?" Asked Tommyfox as I blasted off like a bullet from a shotgun.

"No time," I said as I ran, "I don't wanna die!"

Usually in this area everytime we meet someone and every time we say goodbye to them we give them a hug. It is considered polite and usually is expected. When meeting someone for the first time you have to sniff his or her butt to get their information (mostly where they are from and a few other things my parents said they would tell me about when I'm older), but it's not practiced as much anymore. I do it when I have to. If they don't want to it don't matter.

I ran to the dumpster by the tree a good distance away from the playground. Every breath I took I felt like it was a countdown to when the shard of glass would explode in my hand. I finally made it do the dumpster. I chucked the piece of glass into the dumpster. No explosion. I breathed I sigh of relief. But then I heard movement. I decided to peer into the dumpster to see what it was. In the darkness of the dumpster I saw a pair of yellowish eyes. I wondered what the fetch it was. I was scared. Actually, I take that back. I was petrified. Could not move a muscle to save my life. All I could do was whimper. I couldn't even howl for help. But then I saw that the creature was scared too, because the eyes disappeared. Whatever it was, it had to be hiding in one of the corners of the dumpster. The fear seemed to go away from me. But I was still too scared to move or say anything.

"Hey," I finally said. "Are you okay?"

I can't remember what happened next. All I knew was that I was knocked off my feet and pinned to the ground. All I could see was fangs, all I could hear was excessive growling, and all I could feel was drool pouring down on me. My jeans were torn. If I had been wearing a shirt it would've been torn too.

"WHAT do you think you're doing in MY dumpster?" I heard.

"Y...your dumpster?" I stammered.

"Yeah, I reckon you heard right! You're one of those mean dogs! Tried to get away with ambushing me when I was having a snack, did ya, pardner? Well prepare to defend yerself, ya varmit!"

Whatever this thing was, it was male, its voice sounded young, and for some reason it sounded like a puppy was trying to do his best impression of Wylie Burp from An American Tail: Feivel Goes West. Did he really think that he was a cowboy?

"I wasn't trying to hurt you," I said with every ounce of my strength as I closed my eyes, "look, I know that you just want to eat me anyway, but I swear-

There was a long pause.

"Eat ya?" said the voice.

The growling stopped. I opened my eyes to find that what was attacking me was a brown and tan furred canine that was very wolf-like in appearance, but his ears were just a tiny bit bigger. He was a puppy just like me. He didn't look fierce at all. The only thing intimidating about him was his wild turquoise Mohawk, but I thought that was cool. He also had gray paws that I also thought were kind of cool, and he was standing on two legs like me.

"I'm not gonna eat ya," said the pup, "I thought you were gonna eat ME!"

"Really?"

"Yup. We just moved here and my parents told me to act tougher than the dogs here so that they won't eat me. But it looks like you aren't gonna eat me either."

The pup reached out to me with his paw.

"Here, let me help ya."

The pup lifted me to my feet.

"Name's Silver! I'm a coyote!"

I paused. Did he just say what I think he said? "There is no way he is a coyote", I thought.

"You're a coyote?" I asked.

"Yup! Wait...did I rip up your jeans?"

"Yeah."

"Sorry, dude! I can get my sister to fix 'em for ya."

"It don't matter," I said, "I have plenty of pairs."

Was I really talking to a coyote? I was confused. This coyote was nothing like the ones Aniro had told us about earlier. He was so nice and already I liked him a little bit. But my parents told me to never let my guard down.

"So," I said in the toughest voice possible, "You'd better get off our land and back where you came from!"

"Well," replied Silver in the voice he was using when he pinned me down, "I reckon this town ain't big enough for the two of us! I ain't leavin' until you put up a fight!"

Silver laughed a bit. "This is fun," he said, "I didn't know dogs from these parts played cowboy, too!"

He had to be kidding. He still thought we were playing! It was gonna hurt, but I couldn't let a coyote ruin our playground.

"I'm not playing cowboy, Silver," I said even more sternly than before, "If that IS your real name. I'm telling you to leave. We don't want coyotes in our playground!"

Silver's ears drooped. He hung his head and turned his back away from me. I could see that his tail was not wagging like it was before. It was almost lifeless.

"I guess," said Silver, "that I'd better go back home and tell my folks that I couldn't make any friends."

He slowly started to walk away.

"Wait!" I said. I don't know what came over me. I just felt so bad for Silver. Maybe Aniro was wrong about coyotes. And maybe Sombra was right. Maybe he was just as scared as I was. But what would my friends think if I made friends with a coyote? They would hate me. Aniro would kick me out of the group and not even Tommyfox would ever speak to me again. But from what Silver just said, he didn't have any friends. I couldn't imagine what it was like to have no friends. Plus, he just moved here.

"What do YOU want?" growled Silver, "you already said you don't want me here. Just go away and leave me alone."

"Well," I said, "I was wrong."

Silver's ears perked up.

"Huh?" he replied.

"I don't mind that you are a coyote. We can be friends if you want."

It had to be done.

"Really?" said Silver as he turned around and his tail started wagging, "Ya mean it?"

"Sure," I said, smiling.

Silver walked back up to me, smiling back.

"So," said Silver, "do ya think we should sniff each other first? We didn't get a chance to."

"That don't matter around here," I said.

"Okay, we don't have to."

I looked at Silver. He looked at me. He was wagging his tail and waiting for me to say something. I decided to break the silence.

"Guess I didn't say what my name was," I said, "I'm Nitro."

"Whoa! Nitro, huh? That's a pawsome name!"

"Thanks!"

"So I know you're a dog, but what kind of dog are you?"

"Oh, I'm an Alaskan Husky."

"That's really cool!"

"Thanks! You're not too bad yourself, Silver! But why were you hiding in the dumpster?"

"Cuz I was hungry and I wanted to hide from the mean dogs."

Silver sighed and looked a little bit down.

"You want a hug, Silver?" I asked.

"Sure...thank you, Nitro."

Just like that, I was hugging a coyote, which I had been terrified of only a little bit before.

"So you've never have a friend before, Silver?"

"No. Well...I played with some other puppies before, but none of them wanted to play enough with me to be my friend. I looked and looked but I couldn't find any."

"Well," I said, "you don't have to look anymore."

Silver smiled. His tail was wagging again. Suddenly, I felt Silver's stomach almost as if it were kicking me, and I thought I heard him growl.

"Whoa, Silver! What was that?"

"My gut."

"That wasn't you?"

"Nope."

"Holy fetch! Guess you're REALLY hungry! Wait, didn't you eat some stuff in the dumpster?"

"Well, yeah, but it was mostly covered in a bunch of green fuzzy spots that made the food taste really weird. I couldn't find any meat, and the fuzzy food didn't fill me up that much."

"You're not supposed to eat those fuzzy things," I said a bit concerned, "they'll make you sick."

"I'll deal with that when it comes."

Silver needed to eat something, but the closest source of food was in the playground, and I didn't want to freak my other friends out by bringing in a coyote. Aniro and Tommyfox already knew what a coyote looked like beforehand, so they would know if I did. But I had to do something.

"Wait right here," I said, "and don't go anywhere. I'll be right back."

"Okay."

I ran back to the playground. Aniro and the others were playing with a Frisbee.

"Oh, hello Nitro," said Aniro, "where were you? You have been gone for a long time."

"Oh, uh, I just went for a walk," I said.

"Oh, okay. Do you want to play Frisbee with us?"

"No, no time. I uh...need to go somewhere."

"Where to?"

"The small house that has all the food."

"But lunch isn't until an hour!"

"Don't matter I'm starving!"

"Alright then. Wait, did you rip your jeans?"

"I fell. I have plenty of pairs. See y'all later. Bye!"

I ran past the giant water bowls and through the forest of bones. Finally, I reached the small green house that said, "Food". I entered the door. I searched the entire area, tossing cans of wet food to the side as I searched for meat. Kibble...gravy...bones...where did Aniro put the meat? And then it hit me. It was behind the white door that said, "Cold Storage. Hope you have fur!" I pulled the latch and the door swung open. Even with all my fur it was cold. But there, in large numbers, was all kinds of meat. I didn't know what kind of meat coyotes liked, so I grabbed everything my paws could carry. Elk, bacon, chicken, deer jerky, sausage, hamburger, and many more meats that I couldn't recognize at that moment were in my arms. I also grabbed a big, juicy bone in my mouth on the way out.

I exited through the back of the playground so I wouldn't have to pass by Aniro and the others. It took me a while to get back to Silver because I was carrying a lot of stuff. Finally I reached him. When he saw me carrying all the meats and the bone, his tail started wagging and he panted.

"Whoa!" shouted Silver, "where did you get all this meat and the bone? Aw, who cares?"

I dropped all the meat and Silver dove into a pile of bacon with an open mouth. In less than ten seconds, the bacon was gone. Then he started to eat the deer jerky.

"I've never tasted anything like this before," said Silver, "but it sure is good! What is it?"

"Deer jerky," I replied, a bit exhausted.

"Oh. What is the first one I ate?"

"Bacon."

"I like the sound of that!"

Soon, everything was gone except the bone. And every time Silver had started eating a different kind of meat, he asked me what it was, and I answered. But I was exhausted from all that carrying.

"Hey Nitro...Nitro?"

"I don't want nachos for breakfast," I muttered in response. I say stuff like that when I'm tired.

"But it's lunchtime, silly! Hey...you seem tired. Why don't ya chew on that bone? That helps me stay awake when I'm tired."

"Okay."

Soon, I felt fully awake as I shared the bone with Silver.

"So why didn't you know what all those meats were?" I asked.

"Cuz I've never seen 'em before. I've lived in the desertswest of here all my life, and out there we only eat lizards and prairie dogs and roadrunners, among other things."

"That sounds pretty cool," I replied.

"Oh, yeah, the desert is fun! It's just that here is nicer cuz there's more food. Maybe I could take ya over there some time!"

"I dunno...I've heard that the desert is hot."

"Oh yes, it's very hot. And dry! But it's awesome there! You'll get used to it, and then you'll have a blast!"

"Well out here is pretty fun too," I said.

"Oh yeah! You haven't showed me the playground yet!" exclaimed Silver, "I'm gonna go see! Race ya!"

Silver took off, and he ran FAST. This was not good. He was headed straight for trouble. I tried to keep up with him.

"Wait!" I yelled running as fast as I could, "STOP, Silver!"

But it was too late. Silver had already reached the playground. And not long after, I heard a high pitched yelp of pain. When I finally arrived at the playground, Silver was all tied up with jump ropes, and his muzzle was taped shut. I gasped in horror as I saw my new friend wriggling trying to break free. Aniro and the others were watching Silver in fear. I could hear Silver's muffled screams. Enough was enough. They had to know the truth.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" I yelled.

"This is nothing more than a coyote," said Aniro, "an evil killing machine, and also quite derpy. So we're tying him up until the Elite German Shepherds come to take him away. Tommyfox was just about to yelp their calling code."

Each of Aniro's insults was like knives plunging into me. I walked right up to Aniro and looked him straight in the eye.

"Release him. NOW!"

I wanted to make sure my point was straight with him.

"Say again?"

"You heard me."

"Why would I release him? Do you want to die?"

"Because! He is just like us! He's the same age as us! He just comes from a different area!"

"Are you friends with this coyote?" Scowled Tommyfox.

"YES. Listen, all of you. This coyote, Silver-"

"You NAMED it?" growled Tommyfox.

"-is one of the nicest dogs I have ever met," I continued, "he came here with no friends. He attacked me because he thought *I* was a threat. So he is just as scared of us as we are of him."

"But he came charging in here!" said Aniro.

"Because he wanted to race me there," I explained, "And he was so fast that I couldn't catch him in time. I'm telling you guys, he's harmless."

I walked back over to Silver. He was now whimpering, just trying to break free.

"Don't get any closer!" Said Aniro in fear.

"Take one more step and you're toast!" Shouted Tommyfox.

I didn't listen to their pleas. And Sombra and Ziggo were beginning to roll their eyes at Tommyfox and Aniro's fear.

"Don't worry, buddy. I'll get you out of this. I'm so sorry, Silver. I should have told you that my other friends were afraid of you. I guess a lot of things happened so fast that I never really thought of it. Will you forgive me?"

Silver nodded faintly.

"Okay, buddy. I need you to stay very still. Can you do that for me?"

Silver nodded again. Gently and carefully, I started biting at the rubbery jump ropes with my fangs as Aniro and Tommyfox shouted for me to stop and Sombra and Ziggo, still unsure of what Silver could do, backed away slowly. Soon, the ropes were broken and Silver was almost free except for the tape surrounding his muzzle.

"Now this is gonna hurt a bit, so when I count to three, just close your eyes and think of the happiest thing you can. One...two...three!"

I yanked the tape off of his muzzle with my right paw. Silver yelped. I put my right paw on his left shoulder, and proceeded to give him a hug.

"Thanks, Nitro," he said, "but it's okay. It's actually great knowing that I can count on someone. I would do the same for you, buddy."

"You...are such a DERP!" Shouted Aniro, "he'll kill us all!"

"Okay," said Sombra, "you guys are getting a bit ridiculous."

"I kind of agree with Sombra," said Ziggo, "it doesn't seem like he has done anything bad-"

"-yet," interrupted Tommyfox, "and even if he IS innocent now, he's still a spawn of THEM! His parents are going to teach him to grow up to be just like them and then we are all-MMPH!"

Sombra had sunnenly shoved an empty can of wet food she found on the ground over Tommyfox's muzzle.

"You REALLY need to stop being so speciesist," she stressed.

"And my folks don't do that!" replied Silver, "My dad is starting to spend a lot of time in front of something new called a 'TV' though."

"Maybe this coyote IS harmless," said Aniro, "I say we should call a vote. If the majority votes yes, we let him play frisbee with us. If the majority votes no, we have Tommyfox...attempt to yelp the code for the EGS. All in favor?"

I raised my paw. So did Sombra, Ziggo, and even Aniro. Only Tommyfox did not raise his paw. I walked over to him, gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, grabbed his paw and raised it in the air for him. Under the muffled can, I could hear a faint, "sure, why not?"

"A total majority vote of yes!" Shouted Aniro, "What did you say your name was again?"

"Silver. Silver Yote," said Silver, grinning.

"Welcome to our group, Silver," said Aniro, grinning back, "You are now a part of the Local Area Fur Friends, or LAFF for short."

I walked over to Silver and gave him a playful punch in the shoulder, but not as much of a punch as I gave Tommyfox.

"Thanks Aniro," said Silver, "and Nitro, and...well, I'm sure I'll get to know the rest of your names soon. Thank you EVERYONE!"

"Think fast, Silver!" shouted Ziggo as she hurled a yellow frisbee towards Silver. Silver leaped up into the air and grabbed it in his muzzle effortlessly. He then shook his head violently, growling. The frisbee was in pieces.

"Guess I still have a lot to learn," laughed Silver. I laughed. Everyone laughed. This was a beginning of a great day, and it was only about to get better. And maybe, just maybe, Silver would be a friend for life.