: A female coyote raised among humans learns to avoid their traps. Having broken free, she transfers this invaluable experience to her children, thanks to which coyotes are still flourishing.

The beginning of the 20th century. In the state of Dakota, many coyotes divorced. They gathered in packs, ravaged the herds. Large farmers paid the shepherds a dollar for the killed coyote, and they willingly destroyed them.

Once a shepherd Jack accidentally stumbled upon a coyote’s den, killed a female and cubs. Only the most cunning cub survived, pretending to be dead. Wanting to curry favor with the owner, John gave the animal to his children. Those gave the beast the name Coyotito, which then was reduced to Tito.

Tito turned out to be a female. Outwardly, she looked like a puppy, but had a wild disposition. People were cruel to her, and Tito was afraid of them. Particularly ruthless was the farmer's thirteen-year-old son, Lincoln. He loved to conduct cruel experiments on a small and defenseless coyote.

At first he learned to throw a lasso on Tito. When she learned to dodge, Lincoln set a trap at her doghouse, and Tito fell into it. This inspired her fear of the traps, and she quickly learned to recognize the smell of iron.

Once the rusty chain on which Tito was sitting broke, and she tried to run, but she was noticed by a worker and shot from a gun.Tito realized that fear should be not only traps, but also guns.

Lincoln then gave Tito rat poison meat. There was a lot of poison, the coyote immediately began to have pains in his stomach. Then she burped poisoned food, instinctively chewed some kind of weed and quickly recovered. So Tito learned to treat herself and forever remembered the smell of rat poison.

After that, Lincoln was presented with a bull terrier, and he began to set him on a coyote. Tito quickly realized that the dog did not need to resist, but rather lie down and pretend to be dead.

Over time, Tito learned to snap back. She hunted chickens wandering around the yard and “sang” in the mornings and evenings, which greatly irritated people.

Her song consisted of a jerky bark and plaintive cries. All dogs sympathetically responded to her singing, and once even a wild jackal called out from behind distant hills.

Over the year, Tito grew up and gained experience that was not available to her wild brothers. At that time, the owner of the farm bought two purebred greyhounds and decided to train them to hunt coyotes, setting him on Tito. However, she did not run away from the dogs, but went to meet them, affably waving her tail. This behavior turned Tito from prey to friend and confused the greyhounds.

Bullo Terrier Tito could not be deceived, the dog grabbed her, shocked, and she pretended to be dead. The Englishman present during the persecution wanted to take the tail of the animal as a keepsake. As soon as he cut off half of his tail from Tito, she “came to life” and fled from her tormentors.

Tito began her free life. Over the summer, she learned hunting tricks that wild coyotes learn in early childhood.The shepherd Jack, meanwhile, continued to destroy the coyotes. Once Tito came across a piece of meat thrown by him, poisoned not with rat poison, but with strychnine. Tito ate him, and her hind legs were taken away.

At that moment, Jack appeared and started shooting at Tito. Having made a terrible effort, Tito got up and ran, and Jack chased after her. A quick run revived the numb nerves in her paws, and Tito stopped feeling pain. So Jack, without suspecting it, helped Tito recover. Now she knew that any meat with a strange smell was dangerous.

Autumn has come. Tito looked like a wild jackal and sang her evening song with all her voice. One night, she was answered by a large coyote, whom the shepherds called Osedlanny because of a dark strip across her back. The saddle became Tito's first friend. Soon a few more coyotes joined them, and Tito led this flock.

Thanks to the unique experience gained in captivity, Tito knew all the habits of people and successfully circumvented their traps. During the winter, coyotes killed many sheep, and the farmers nicknamed Tito Kucei. She took revenge on her long-time enemy - the bull terrier, luring him from the farm and killing him. Jack tried his best to destroy the flock, but nothing came of it.

In the spring the flock fell into pairs. Tito and Osadlanny also became a couple, dug a hole, and soon they had cubs. Tito learned to catch fast gophers and remembered that it is better to stay away from the sharp-hoofed antelope.

Tito developed the habit of all coyotes to wear various unnecessary things in their teeth.Once she picked up a piece of poisoned meat, carried it to the farm and threw it away. The greyhounds ate the meat and died, after which "a law was passed prohibiting the destruction of jackals by poison."

After the birth of the babies, the main concern of Tito was to "keep his shelter a secret."

A mother does not need to learn to love her helpless children ... But the love for children is as great as the concern for their lives.

Shepherd Jack, a lazy dog ​​and a drunkard, dreamed of getting rich, but did not want to work, and all his plans "burst one by one." He tried to breed turkeys, but all the birds soon disappeared. In the end, the main occupation of Jack was the extermination of coyotes. For hours he lay on a hillock, looking out for a female carrying food to the cubs.

One day, Jack saw Ossedlanny carrying a dead turkey to his children, realized who had dragged all his birds, vowed revenge, and tried to lure the coyote female with a live chicken to trace her to the hole. The saddled man was flattered by the chicken and almost brought the man to the hole. Fortunately, it was already dark, and Jack put off the search in the morning.

At night, the coyotes defeated Jack's fast-sleeping camp and released his horse. While the shepherd was chasing the horse to the farm, Tito began to transfer the cubs to a safe place.

In the afternoon, Jack still found the hole, tore it open and found only the head of a turkey in the depths. In the meantime, Tito carried in her new hole the last, largest cub. Jack spotted the coyote and set a dog taken from the farm on it. Tito could not run away from her, prepared to defend the cub and called for the help of the Settlement.He managed in time, and the coyotes tore the dog.

Tito calmly raised the cubs and gave them all their experience, and they, in turn, taught these tricks to their children. Years passed, bison and antelopes almost disappeared, and coyotes continued to thrive. Thanks to Tito, they learned to "live in a country inhabited by their worst enemies - people."

The retelling is based on the translation of N. Chukovsky.