Dear All: Thanks for all of your concerned comments about our bull search at the Western Bison Association show and sale in Ogden. As soon as we started prowling the pens, we almost swooned at sight of this one huge three-year-old bull. The New Mexico trich-tag in his ear gave him away as one of John Painter’s animals. Painter runs Montoso Bison between Taos, and Tres Piedras, New Mexico. And drought has been kicking his butt. But then, as slowly as Painter moves, a two-toed green sloth could kick his… Well, never mind. We promptly asked Painter about the bull. Would he be in the sale? “No,” John said, “Tiberius is ‘show only.’ I’m not selling him. Period. He’s out of the Snyder’s bull, Gray, and one of your Red Canyon cows. I’ve been waiting for years to produce a bull of Tiberius’s quality.” So we looked around at the other animals, most of them from Rex and Rhonda Snyder. For you non-buffalo sorts, the Snyders went out and bought the best bison in North America, collecting champions from all over the US and Canada. They have some of the finest bloodlines in the country, and stack of national and regional trophies to prove it. A couple of years back they brought the finest 3 year-old bull we’d ever seen to the Western Bison Association sale. And we’d have been real happy with one from this year’s consignment. To make a long story short, Painter walked up to us before the sale, a scowl on his normally scowlly face. “Listen. I’ve got a proposition. You know about this drought. I’ve got hay to last only until February. Here at the show, I’ve got Tiberius and Lady Bug, the Grand Champion yearling heifer, both ‘show only’ and not for sale. But I don’t have feed at home. How about I lease you the bull to use for a year? But I want you to take the yearling heifer and feed herr, too, because I want Tiberius to breed her in spring.” Michael immediately started counting on his fingers and mumbling under his breath when John told him the price. Michael couldn’t help it, and asked, “So, like…what’s the catch?” “No catch,” Painter said. “And if we don’t get moisture, I may be knocking on your door to relocated the rest of the Montoso herd!” So it was, good readers, Tiberius and Lady Bug rode home in the Red Canyon Ranch trailer, across icy and slithery roads, to temporarily join us. Lady Bug is a gorgeous yearling, and currently in a pen with Pia and her calf, acclimating to the ranch. Tiberius gets the run of the corrals so he can snort at Sunchaser, our 17 year-old bull, and promise mayhem when he finally get released. Introducing bulls this way cuts down substantially on how “Western” things get when they finally duke it out. What might have been bloody and too the death between total strangers will most likely only be a tussel to establish dominance. So, now, when you ask if we got bull, we most surely do! And we’re still trying to figure out what the catch is?