Thank you all for the great comments!
Since Sandy had never lived with her mother, she had never learned to hunt. So she was considered disabled. There was no "rehabilitating" her, even though she was one of the most healthy coyotes ever.
After running into dead ends with trying to get her shots and dog tags, which would have made her legitimate, and signaled that she was not just a wild predator, I began in earnest to find a forever place for her. I absolutely decided against calling the local animal control folks because that would have been a death sentence. So, I looked at organizations that rescue wild animals and re-introduce them the the wild. One such place was in California and I called them. Their program was designed to make them wild again by being so deliberately mean to them that they would never again have anything to do with humans. Outrageous! Check them of the list. Another, just outside of Reno, was close and open to taking her. But they had no enclosure in place to house her and wanted $10,000. to build one before taking her. Nope. Check that one off the list. Another said they had room and would take her. I felt relieved and decided to keep her for a few more weeks before completing the transfer. When I called back to make final arrangements, that few weeks later, they flatly told me "sorry, we're now full, can't help you". Hmmm. OK. So then I found Southwest in Scottsdale. They are wonderful and told me they liked coyotes, received a lot of them and would take her. They explained that she would have a permanent home becuase she was disabled. They put no conditions on taking her. Great! I told them when we could arrive and that we would be there.
They are about 600 miles from home and it meant crossing into Arizona with wildlife in the truck. Is that legal? Is there a checkpoint like there is when entering California? Dunno. So I studied the route and the border area. No check point.
Nevada is a vast open area of mountainous high desert. We had three dogs in a standard cab truck, and took off at about 4PM, planning to arrive in the morning. An all night trip in the never ending quiet and desolate desert. I love it here partly for that reason. It's mysterious, quiet, and a place where time can stand still. You can always reach out and make a handshake with the past because so much of history, both human and geological is right there to see and experience. The hypnotic affect of driving through an endless night. The Cummins idling faithfully along at highway speeds, the radio reaching out for distant stations in the night. The two lane road that never ends as it climbs to clear a pass, then settles back down to cross a valley, then repeats, over and over in the wrinkled landscape of quiet desolate desert mountains.
The three dogs were trying to be comfortable in the limited space. Sandy had ended up standing. But over the hours, she was getting tired and sagging. Gradually intruding into the other's space. Trying to not intrude, but aching to lay down, She slipped gradually farther. I was getting tired too. The endless night. The road that only reached as far as the headlights, but never ended. On we went. I wasn't sure if we were driving along or if the planet was rotating magestically beneath us and we were actually standing still. The engine quietly continued doing its duty. Another hour came and went. Sandy drooped farther. Then all of a sudden the other dog had had enough and barked and snarled at her. The din jolted me back to reality A bit of swerving as the turmoil went on briefly. Then order was restored. Poor Sandy, doing her best to be non-intrusive and getting yelled at by one of the other dogs. I found a wide spot and pulled off the road a ways to let them out. Stars from horizon to horizon. I'd not seen another car for an hour or so. A kind of stillness that only the desert can provide. It feels like the calm before the storm, but no storm ever comes. All three got out to do dog stuff. Peeing and sniffing around. Stretching their legs. A bit of tail wagging. After a few minutes I said "lets's go!" and they trotted back to continue. Sandy jumped in and off we went. A little ways down the road, I began to notice a glow in the distance, but it wasn't morning yet. Then a sign went by. " Las Vegas 106 miles". The incredible incandescence of that city, seen from a hundred miles away.
One of my favorite places on the planet is Hoover Dam and I've visited it occasionally since I was a kid. We'd be crossing the Colorado River soon on our trek, on a newer bridge built after 911, just downstream of the Dam. I always marvel at the magnitude of that place. Everything is enormous. A fantastic achievement. The power it makes sufficient to light a city the size of Las Vegas and produce a glow seen from a hundred miles away, as water pours down the penstocks and drives the turbines. Wicket valves throttling the flow to match the load with a constant 60 cycle hum. 1 3/8" copper segmented cables rise from the generator room and start their path across the desert on towers. Each loaded up with 287,000 volts! Yikes! On the eastern end of the dam, in Arizona, where the dam meets the canyon wall, there is a large slab floor of concrete. Visitors walk on it all the time and it is pretty. But there is more to it than that. If you look a bit closer, you see it is divided up into sections separated by brass strips. A nice touch to control cracking I thought at first. But no, there is even more to it than that. This slab is actually a star map built of polished concrete. It was poured in separate sections deliberately. And here is why: This place, this structure, the dam itself, is so enormous, that it will pretty much last in some form or another for many thousands or even millions of years. Not as a working power house, but as a sign that something was built there by man at some point. Kind of like the pyramids, but much more substantial. So, when someone, way into the future, is wondering, when this thing, this enormous structure was built, all they have to do is find the star map concrete sections and reassemble them as they are today. The star map shows the position of the stars, from this vantage point, when Hoover Dam was built. The construction date can be worked out easily. Not only is this place an outstanding achievement, but it was seen by the engineers and the builders, and by the people of this Country as being so significant and long lasting that they wanted to send a message to those far distant researchers. A message beyond words describing how they felt about it. It is our own form of the pyramids in that regard. Everyone at the time stood in awe at the power of this place, the forever nature of the structure itself. As time goes on, it will eventually live the fate of all river fed reservoirs that last long enough. Especially this one with the Colorado River feeding it. It will eventually fill with silt and become a high meadow with a river running through it. And at the end of that meadow, a huge concrete dam. If there is any doubt about how much sediment the river can move, remember, the Grand Canyon was cut by the Colorado River. Cut 6,000 feet deep at it's deepest, through millions of years of tectonic plate induced sedimentary layers from repeated ancient seas that came and went over time, long before the river arrived. The Canyon is "only" about 5.5 million years old. At one point in the past, the rock at the bottom of the canyon was about six miles below the top of mountains that stood there then. Dramatic changes from plate interaction that pushed up enormous mountains, that eroded away over time, that became flat plains that still moved from the plate interactions and developed seas that came and went over time, that built differing layers of sediment a mile deep. Then the River arrived and cut the Canyon. Then we arrived and dammed up a section to make a power house. Then people flip a switch, hundreds of miles away and their home lights up. So, over the new bridge we went, the dogs oblivious to the structure. Just another milestone for me on our way to Southwest. Our arrival at the sanctuary was a fun morning, at least until we had to leave, that I still laugh about. More on that if anyone is interested.
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