SILT, Colorado — It might be called the Mystery of the Stiff Coyote, if it were a suspense novel.

As it is, it's just a mysterious appearance on a lonely country road.

Seth Wettlin, who lives in the Mineota Estates subdivision south of Silt, ran out of gas on the way home the night of Dec. 16. As he shut down the truck, he saw a coyote standing stock still by the road, illuminated by his headlights.

“He thought it was frozen and not moving because of fear,” recalled his mother, Gretchen, relating the story Seth told when he got home.

But it wasn't fear that immobilized the animal, it was the cold. The coyote was frozen solid, standing in snow up to its chest with its tongue hanging out when Gretchen went out the next day to take pictures.

Seth was working in Meeker on Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

Gretchen, however, noted that the recent blizzard hit her neighborhood hard, leaving three-foot drifts in some places. She said she believes the coyote was hit by a vehicle of some sort and had just enough energy left to leap off the road and into the snow.

There is some blood on one of the coyote's legs, she said, but not much in the snow around it.

“I think he was trying to get through the snow bank and, because he was injured, he didn't have the strength,” Gretchen explained.

She surmised that the coyote had been covered by the snow and had stood there for days, hidden from sight. When the snow began to melt, she continued, the carcass reappeared, still on its feet until the snow level drops further.

Gretchen said there are plenty of coyotes and other carnivores in her neighborhood, including a mountain lion that killed her two dogs a few years back.

As for the coyote's future, she said, she called a local vet and was planning to call the Division of Wildlife to see what should be done.

She also called her brother, who lives in Grand Junction and already has one stuffed coyote, to see if he wants to make it a pair.

jcolson@postindependent.com