Billy, Bucky and Becki-lynn

The Most Difficult Bighorn Children

Billy, Bucky and Becki-lynn Bighorn are definitely this year’s most difficult bighorn children, but they are fearless and they certainly do know how to have fun.

There are always a few… the difficult ones who are restless to see and explore, who constantly test the boundaries and can’t imagine why everyone is always so careful and upset.

The lucky ones among them are not punished for this extra restlessness and sense of curiosity, but instead, coached. God knows they are way more work than the more docile, get-along boys and girls, but often, they grow into the leaders and visionaries of their tribes and arguably, if you can keep them alive, live the most fascinating lives.

They need special teachers, wise, level-headed adults who have the proper wiring to care for and guide their different-wired minds, who are not intimidated by, or resentful of the extra freedoms and patience they may ask for continually, and truly, require.

And so, in this case, some ‘auntie,’ probably the mother of one of these three gamboling, bighorn lambs takes the trio of rowdies up into the cliffs for rock climbing practice while all the other young ones amble slowly along the train tracks with their mothers, aunties and playmates, having just watered up for the day.

Yesterday morning along the river, a band of more than thirty bighorns, lambs and ewes was just finishing watering up in preparation for another hundred degree day. I had just happened to notice one lone ewe, head down, at the edge of the river, and then, the rest of the them appeared, almost as if out of an invisible, next door dimension. And so I surrendered to the miracle of the moment, to watch and wonder and get completely lost in the unfolding tale.

Fishing would need to wait just a little longer. And so it did (see below).

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Oh, sure, I danced with a few, but after a bit of flirtin’ and a twirl I put every one of ‘em back in the river they help make so magical.