Buffalo Games

One of my favourite books from before was Out of the Blue...it was written by one of the authors of my favourite series - Chicken Soup for the Soul. Incidentally, Mark Victor Hansen came to Malaysia, and I interviewed him. It was one of those experiences...mainly because he bubbled forth with such clear joy...and although the PRs hovered nearby and kept interrupting saying it was really time for Mr Hansen to go have some lunch, he kept saying, OK, one story more, just one story more, just one story more...and he kept telling me stories. Lovely ones. The kind that uplift your soul and make your spirit soar. So here is a story from out of the blue. It's just quirky and unexpected and I love it.

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Animals not only have the ability to astound us with their wisdom and caring, they also can display an enjoyment of the outdoors that can rival our own. During the Iditarod, the dogsled race across the frozen wonder of Alaska, Gary Paulsen, a rookie driver, came upon another musher who had stopped his team and was gazing down a hill with rapt attention. He paused to see what was going on and found, to his great delight, the following extraordinary sight.


We were looking down on a frozen lake - one of the Farewell lakes. But it wasn't the lake that held his interest. Below and to the right, a group of four buffalo were standing on the shore. Two of them were in the grass at the edge and the other two were out on the ice.

"Somebody told me that there was a herd of buffalo here, but I hadn't expected to see them along the trail."

"Yes," I told the other musher. "Buffalo. I know. They told us..."

"No - watch."

I turned back, thinking frankly that he was around the bend. So it was buffalo - so what?

Then I saw what he meant.

The surface of the lake was bare of snow...and the two buffalo out on the ice were having a rough time of it trying to stand...one of the buffalo on the shore backed away from the lake, up the sloping side of the ridge, pawed the ground a couple of times and ran full bore for the lake.

Just as he hit the edge of the ice his tail went straight up in the air, he spread his front feet apart and stiffened his legs and slid away from the shore, spinning around in a circle as he flew across the ice.

When he slowed to a stop he bellowed, a kind of "Gwaaa" sound, then began making his tortuous way back to the shoreline.

While he was doing this the fourth buffalo came shooting out on the ice, slid farther (also tail up) than the last, made a louder noise, and started back slipping and falling.

I couldn't believe it and blinked rapidly several times, thinking I was hallucinating.

"No - it's real," he laughed. "I was passing when I heard the bellow and came up to check it out...I've been here an hour, maybe a little more. They've been doing this all the time. Great, isn't it?"

We lay there for another half-hour watching them play. The object seemed to be who could slide the farthest and each of them tried several times, tail up, happy bellows echoing on the far shore of the lake as they slid across the ice.

Buffalo Games...who would have thought it could happen?