In The Pre-Dusk Woods

In the final analysis the peculiar event
may come down simply to suggestibility
as in how susceptible you may be to unseen
but suspected creatures stalking you for
purposes known not only to its own natural
predation heritage but narratives dispensed by
others of personal worrying confrontations 
as well as news that such attacks have had
devastating consequences for those whose
devoted canine companions have sensed
danger and sprung to their humans' defense
sacrificing themselves to the jaws and claws
of creatures of the wild acting on compulsion
of their own survival. You are nervous and
wary, walking through the icy winter forest
trails impressed on the deep snow leading off
pathways into the denseness of the interior
where evening dusk is yet to creep its presence.
With you are two small dependent leashed
dogs who suddenly begin a hysterical chorus
of barks at the approach of a large and well
behaved dog and a woman with whom you
exchange cordial greetings and advise her
of the daytime presence of coyotes in the
wooded ravine you are both traversing. The
dogs leap and frolic and are suddenly stiff
while a movement off the side, furtive, quiet
captures your eye as you think you see a 
tall, lean, grey creature sidling behind a
copse of trees, startled by the fuss; another
on the opposite side, as you incredulously
convince yourself that what you see is what
is occurring then and there. And suddenly not.