In L.A, we have been reading wisdom tales from all around the world that have morals and life lessons. In this piece of writing, we have to choose our favourite tale and the one with the best moral. The tale I chose was the story Old Dog and Coyote, which originated in Otomi Mexico.

This tale takes place a long time ago, and is about an old dog who lived with a chicken farmer in the Mexican desert. One day, a predator attacked the chickens and the dog was fast asleep. The owner came out and had to chase the predator away and became very mad that the dog was asleep during the attack and told the dog to find his own food for the day. The dog went out into the desert and was picking around plants in the desert for food when he saw a coyote jumping up and down in the distance. The dog was very curious why the coyote was doing this so he went over and asked why the coyote was jumping up and down. The coyote said he was the best jumper in the desert and that he was going to jump over a huge cactus. The dog said that the coyote couldn’t jump over a cactus and that it was impossible. The coyote said that anything was possible with practice. The coyote told him to watch. The coyote jumped, soaring through the air and landed on the cactus. He howled in pain and he hit the ground whimpering. The dog hated to see him in so much pain so he pulled every single spike from the cactus out of the coyote. The coyote thanked the dog for doing this. But then, the coyote learned that the dog’s owner had cast him away to get his own food. The coyote said that he would do something for the dog in return for his good deed. That night, the coyote made a ruckus scaring the chickens so loud that it woke up the owner. The dog then growled and ran at the coyote. The coyote then pretended to be scared and ran off, tail in between his legs. Every couple of days they did this, and the owner took the dog back in and fed and loved him until the day the dog died.

I think this tale has the best moral to live by. I think the moral of this story is that if you put out kindness into the world, then you will get kindness back. I think this is the moral because the dog is kind to the coyote and helps him and in return the coyote does a huge favor for the dog. I think this is a really important moral because it really speaks that kindness is good and this moral spreads kindness in the world making the world a better place. If people put out kindness other people will and it will spread kindness.

This is a drawing I made about a scene in this tale, the dog picking out all the spikes of the cactus from the coyote.