Severely dehydrated and starving, Coyo lay in the hot, dry arroyo with her 6 puppies. She was barely holding on and had lost her milk. Fortunately for Coyo and her puppies, Liz found them in time. Liz had just come from Alaska, where she’d caught and canned a large supply of fresh salmon.

Coyo gratefully ate salmon every day. As her strength returned, an incredibly compassionate personality radiated from her. Coyo’s milk returned, and she enjoyed nursing and nurturing her puppies. Once weaned, Liz found good homes for all of the puppies and for Coyo.

Today Coyo lives on the beach in Port Townsend, WA with Lee and Roger. Every morning she grooms Lee by licking her feet and legs. Twice a day they take a 4 mile hike down the beach where Coyo can run to her heart’s content. On her ‘days off’ from that routine, they take long hikes into the Olympic Mountains, where Coyo charges up the trail ahead of everyone else and chases squirrels. She’s very content.

Coyo is believed to be half coyote, and that is how she got her name. Roger describes her as the most gentle animal he’s ever met, saying “There’s not a single mean bone or mean thought in her body.”