A coyote spent a good part of Thursday morning sauntering around the area of Blue Hill Avenue and Walk Hill Street.

When it mosied over to the schoolyard at the Mildred Street School around 11:30 a.m., however, authorities sprung into action: Students were kept inside the school and Boston animal control - which normally no longer responds to coyote reports - was urgently summoned by police.

Police and a newly arrived animal-control officer kept losing sight of the animal - at one point, it made a feint toward the Fairmount Line train tracks - but it kept popping up. Shortly after noon, a resident reported it on Norfolk Street, headed toward Hosmer.

Then, around 12:10 p.m., police found it in a rear yard off Hosmer Street - looking like it had been hit by a car. The animal-control officer was then able to trap it and take it away.