Buffalo Billy's Bison Brotherhood

For four months I had the pleasure of knowing and caring for Buffalo Billy. I felt that God had given me this incredible gift, which was once merely a dream… to have a relationship with a male buffalo where I could get close to him, hand feed him, and actually touch him. Billy was that rare wild animal who lets you into his world and also wants to be part of yours. Billy approached me four months ago, to begin what was a beautiful, faithful, trusting love affair.

Billy would come when I called him, but, buffalo come only after they have thought about it awhile. Billy wanted to be hand fed… none of this eating off the ground stuff for him. He let me touch his face with my hands, and he would even let me kiss him on the nose. Billy would be waiting for me at the fence, and he loved for me to talk to him. Every day I would finish feeding Billy and his mate, his baby and their donkey sidekick, and then I would sit down on the ground at the fence and just talk to him. He would stand there and listen for as long as I stayed, and sometimes he would lay down beside me.  Buffalo in a herd are constantly jabbering at each other, and Billy loved to listen to his Auntie jabber away. If I occasionally showed too  much attention to Whiskey, the donkey, he would give me “the horn” to show his displeasure. The relationship was always geared toward Billy. He set the terms and I never challenged him, and he never took advantage. Rather he responded with the same love, giving, and understanding that I shared with him.

When I met Billy he was a skeleton, thin and weak. I promised him that I would bring him and his family back to health. Unfortunately, I was not able to fulfil that promise. No matter how much I could love, feed, or doctor him or even WILL him back to health, it was not meant to be.

Billy seemed to improve after an initial vet visit and was gaining weight, but, while his mate and baby had gained a lot of weight and were looking healthy, Billy was lagging behind. More food, more tests, but Billy did not respond as he should have. That last night I called the vet again for a last-ditch effort but in the morning he was down, laying on his side. I rushed to him in the small stall, looking so pitiful and almost embarrassed by his plight. I struggled to prop his huge head up on a bale of hay so he wouldn’t suffocate. I stroked his beautiful face and talked sweetly to him… jabbering, kissing him on his face and nose. We  filled a giant size syringe with electrolyte fluid and Billy would let me shoot it in his mouth. In between electrolyte fill-ups I would give him his favorite, apple. I begged him to hold on as we called out the fire department, just as Roger Brooks had done for his beloved buffalo, Charlie, to come help Billy sit up. For that hour that I showed Billy my steadfast love and commitment, he looked into my eyes with the same love. It was the best hour of my life and also one of the most traumatic and heart wrenching. But, I didn’t let Billy know.  It was just him and me, our little love affair… and me jabbering to keep him alive. The firemen came , animal control came and so did the the vet. The only thing that didn’t come was a miracle. Billy died as peacefully and heroically, as he had lived.

The grief and emptiness are inconsolable, except that Billy has a baby girl exactly like him that he left for me to love and care for. Billy lives on in Minko. He gave me so many gifts, so much pleasure and what I gave him was nothing in comparison.

For four months I tried to save Billy, but, Billy really saved me. Before he passed away I thanked him for what he gave me and shared with me. I told him how sorry I was that I had made a promise to him that was not mine to keep.

I know Billy is now the most beautiful, healthy buffalo. I never got to see him run in buffalo joy. But now I can see him running free, and God has assigned some little angel to jabber away at him, until one sweet day I will do it again myself.