The history of hybridization and range change of Canis in eastern North America has created an interesting evolutionary story that researchers are still untangling. We welcome the comment by Wheeldon et al. (in press) on our study on the evolution of northeastern coyote and the new data they present in their comment and new paper (Way et al. in press). Their comment raises two issues, one taxonomic and one biogeographic. Here we briefly defend our taxonomic treatment of northeastern wolves, and present new data supporting our original biogeographic interpretations.