Teeny, Tiny Tracks!

  Mark and I like to take our coffee mugs to the pier with us on our early morning treks.  It is relaxing to sit in the coolness of the predawn.  We watch the world around us as it wakes to a new day.  Sometimes, we sit there silently sharing the peace.  It is just one of those things that makes living on the Bayou perfect.

  A couple of mornings ago, as we were just about to step up on the pier, I noticed some small animal tracks.  They appeared to be that of a dog but this would have definitely had to be a tiny dog!  Compared to Ms. Ez's big paw print, this mark was minuscule!  I tossed my extra camera battery down beside the track to get an idea of how small the thing was. The battery dwarfed the footprint. The entire track was smaller than a quarter.  It had the nails and pad prints that looked a lot like Ms. Ez's footprint, yet, if this was the track of a dog, it was tiny!  Hmmm?  Ponder, ponder?  I wonder what type critter made this track?  

  For several days now, I have seen more tracks but never the animal. Since I usually find the tracks in the uninterrupted sand after an overnight rain, I am assuming that the critter is nocturnal.  Could this be a coyote pup's track?  If so, the critter is still a wee, little thing and should not be out roaming by itself!  I never find an adult track nearby.  Is it a fox's track?  I am so at a loss!

  If anyone has any ideas or can identify the tiny footprint, I would love to hear from you!  Until then, I suppose I will watch the tracks to see if they get larger.  Perhaps then, I might make the assumption that this is a whelp that has been orphaned which might account for the lack of adult tracks.  Poor little pup!  Or, poor, teeny, tiny dog! Or, poor, little critter of some sort!