I'm not sayin' anything...

I first saw it as I headed north out of the marshlands, through a thickening snowstorm.

Definitely a canid. But it seemed too tall for a coyote, barely disappearing behind the hummocks of greasewood and saltbush. Didn't run like a coyote, either. Kind of a steady lope, rather than a panicked run, or curious trot.

In the falling snow, I could not get a clear picture. Just a dog-like shape gliding through the white and grays. But in the binocs, I could clearly see the thick tail hanging loose behind the hocks, not like a domestic dog at all.

And the ears. Erect, pointed, batman-like ears on top of the head, not to the sides.

Definitely not a dog. And not like any of the many other coyotes I've seen in my decades out here in the desert. And those other canids? They've been seen not that many miles northwest of here, and reported to the southwest. And we know they've passed through on their way into Colorado.

But the glimpses were brief, and the falling snow thick. I'm not saying what this thing looked like.

Just an Unidentified Running Canid.