The jungle of cold-stunted grass on the lawn provided the mouse with enough cover to create a false sense of security. For the first time since the cat attack, the tiny rodent relaxed. With no imminent danger, the mouse sniffed the air for scents promising food. Enough acorns littered the ground to offer the tiny nibbler enough food to quickly fill its empty belly. The mouse's teeth gnawed at the surface of the acorn to get to more nutritional content.
Back in the darker shadows near the trunk of the enormous tree that had produced the blanketing carpet of acorns, a canine shadow stood motionless and silent. A coyote's hearing is very acute and is used for pinpointing prey. The ears on the canine twitched slightly to scan for the source of the interesting sound of tiny teeth gnawing incessantly on a fallen acorn's shell.
The coyote's sense of smell is highly developed and is used to detect prey, giving the predator another advantage. This particular coyote had fed earlier and would have been content to mark the yard as a potentially productive future hunting ground.
Alas, mice have their own highly acute senses of hearing and smell. When the wind shifted, the little mouse brain initiated alarm bells upon detecting the scent of the unseen predator. The mouse stopped nibbling at the acorn. Its whiskers twitched as it tried to learn more from the scent.
Tiny pink-lined white ears listened for any sound that indicated peril. The predator, still hidden in the darker shadows of the oak, felt no real need to conceal its presence. When a flea bite itched, the coyote dug at the affected area of its coat of fur with a hind paw.
The sound triggered an instant reaction in a mouse that no longer found the enveloping lawn grass a secure barrier.