I Walked With an American Buffalo

Big Snow Buffalo
by David Lee Thompson

Walking with a Buffalo

When I was twenty three years old I was on took a little vacation between semesters of theatre school to an island 20miles off the coast of California just across from Los Angles. And I went to the north side of the island to camp because the south side was filled with Clubs and Casino’s and I wanted to get away from all that insanity.

Now Catalina Island is divided by a huge piece of rock and creates wonderful natural boundaries for wild life such as buffalo. No one told us that some years back one of the exocentric rich introduced a herd of buffalo to the north side of the island.

Late one evening I decided to go out before dusk to see a Californian sunset which is hard to see because of the smog, and buildings and well you name it. Well I didn’t get to see the sunset and on the return I was in my own world and I must not paying attention because all of a sudden I heard the snort of this beast or something. When I turned to see what it was it was a buffalo, an arms length away, well I pooped myself right on the spot.

This is the story that came from that encounter.
Walk with a Buffalo
A long time ago there was Buffalo who lived on an island, across the sea from the City of Angels where the ant people play; they say that this Buffalo could talk.

Now in the Great Northern Mountains, in the city of tears, where the frog people play, they say there lived a man who walks likes a Buffalo.

It is said that the man came from the Great Northern Mountains, from the city of tears where the frog people play to an island across the sea from the city of Angles where the ant people play. To an island to see a sunset that he thought could speak. But the sun did not speak, so the man left, dejected, sad with his head hanging low on his walk back home. And it is said that a Buffalo went for a walk on this island across the sea, from the city of Angels where the ant people play, to see a sunset it was said that could speak. But the sun did not speak, so the buffalo left, dejected, sad with his big head hanging low on his way back home.

The Man had been walking for quite awhile before he noticed the he had been sharing the walk with the Buffalo. And the Buffalo walked for quite a while before he too realized the Man. At the moment, when Man saw Buffalo and Buffalo saw Man, Man screamed!!!!! Jumping straight out of his skin a million miles into the air. Well, the Buffalo was so taken aback, his mouth dropped wide open and wouldn't you know it when man returned to earth he landed right into the Buffalo's mouth. Well, the Buffalo nearly choked, and gagged on the man, but then with his humungous lungs he spat the Man 1500 miles up, over into the Great white mountains. The Buffalo tried to regain his composure......"PPllah, PPllaaaah. Yuk that was the most awful lest thing I've ever tasted...." Then he paused and listened to what he was saying. Then Einstein’s theory of relativity came to his head, then other Buffalo's came to listen, and that’s how the Buffalo got to talk.

So, if you're down on an island across the sea, from the City of Angels where the ant people play, listen, listen for the talking Buffalo.

The Man shot up over the Great Northern Mountains, into the snow of the two sisters, near the city of tears, where the frog people play and he landed on his bum. So hard did he land on his bum that when he walks now he walks in a very funny way? And if you are very careful, late at night you will be able to see the Man who walks like a Buffalo, in a Buffalo way. I mean you would too, if you were spat a mere 15 hundred miles onto icy snow. That’s what the stories say, that’s what the stories say, they say: Walk like the Buffalo. Talk like the Buffalo. Dream like the Buffalo. Sing like the Buffalo. Dance like the Buffalo. Laugh like the Buffalo.(c)