At the Sun Mountain Lodge in the Cascade mountains we found this huge Bison standing in the lobby. As I sketched him several families approached and took pictures of their children next to this Bison named Floyd. One little girl asked her mom, “Is that Floyd’s real tongue?” Her mother pondered the question and said “Well I know they replace the eyeballs with glass but I am not sure about the tongue. I suppose it could be his original tongue.” The little girls father offered to lift her up to see the tongue up close but she screamed and backed away shouting “NO!”
Little kids were fascinated with Floyd and respected the fact that he didn’t want to be touched. The Bison is a beautiful beast and I tried to imagine huge herds roaming the open ranges around the Lodge. Deer were to be found in abundance every night at dusk. They would roam the grounds eating the fresh grass and sometimes the garden flowers. They had no fear of humans at all. One camped outside our window and didn’t even turn its head as we spoke about her. The ears did twitch indicating she did hear us however. The other wildlife that could be seen each day were the chipmunks.
