Oh give me a home ...

Wednesday, I got my fast-food lunch and headed to the city park to sit in my car, read my book and watch the buffalo. Yes, the city where I work has its own buffalo herd in an enclosure of about 30 acres across the highway from the historic frontier fort. They've numbered into the double digits, but in the last couple years the city has thinned out the herd, selling off the older cows and the bull last year (they went to a good home, not in someone's freezer) and kept their four calves to rebuild with some new blood. There's a nice shady spot on the east side of the enclosure to park and watch them.

I parked and got out my Mclunch and opened my book. After awhile, the four of them got up from their wallow and grazed along the east side of the enclosure, up the hill to the southeast corner. After a bit more reading, I looked up again, and they were playing, butting heads and play-fighting, running around the others and kicking their heels. They really looked like they were having fun! I watched their antics for a bit, then finished my lunch and went back to the book. Then it was close to 2 p.m. and time to head back to work, so I grabbed my trash to dump it and the buffalo had disappeared, probably to the other side of the enclosure. Oh well. But as I got into my car and got ready to leave, here they came from around the lean-to type shed, running at full speed, mouths open, tongues hanging out, dust rising! They ran to near where my car was, then veered to the south end of the enclosure and ran around some more. There's only four of them, and they're still pretty small, but it was a cool sight. They finally got tired of running and headed for the big watering tank near where I was parked. It's big enough they can all have plenty of room to drink, but no, they all had to be in the same spot, so there was much shoving and shoulder-butting and snorting, like a bunch of little kids fighting for cookies but without the snorting. Maybe.

If I had a bunch of money, I'd get me a place about 30 or 40 acres with hills and a stream and trees and get me a herd of buffalo.