Bison

The bison is the largest land animal in North America. An adults they weigh 900 to 2000 pounds, depending on their gender. They are six to six and a half feet tall at the shoulder. They should not be confused with buffalo that are found only in Asia and Africa.

In the eighteenth century between twenty and thirty million bison roamed the North American plains and woods. By the late nineteenth century there were about one thousand bison left. This reduction in population caused a genetic bottleneck. This means that the bison were at risk for inbreeding because of a lack of diversity.

Bison start their life, after 285 days of gestation, living in a group of about twenty females and calves. They nurse for seven months. They start out with light brown fur that turns chocolate brown as they mature. When males turn three they leave and live alone or with other male adults.

The bison live in conservation herds and on ranches where they are bred with cattle for eating. Cross breeding dilutes the bison genes. The herd that lives in Yellowstone National Park is genetically pure. Staying in Yellowstone is a problem in the winter when the bison do not find enough grasses, berries and sedges to eat. That leads to their enemy, the Montana rancher.

Ranchers have an irrational fear that bison give their cattle brucellosis even though none of the herd has the disease. When the bison would try to leave to graze on public land in Montana, the ranchers would haze them back or kill them! Last year, for the first time, the bison were allowed to graze in Montana under the Interagency Bison Management Plan as part of a joint effort between the Federal government and the State of Montana. The future remains uncertain for the bison. _

Pandas

Pandas are born blind, bald, and helpless. They weigh four ounces and live alone with their mother. They live on their mother's milk until they can leave the den and eat bamboo.

In China, where all wild pandas live in the mountains, there are forests with hundreds of varieties of bamboo. There are twenty varieties eaten by pandas. Each panda only eats four or five of the twenty. If the bamboo they eat isn't available they will starve to death.

Pandas are cute and cuddly looking. They have black and white fur on black and pink skin. They grow to five feet tall and two hundred pounds. They have related DNA with bears. Pandas have thumb-like bones called radial sesamoids to help them hold bamboo.

The diet that makes pandas unique, also makes them vulnerable. The government of China has established large preserves to protect pandas from their greatest enemy - loss of habitat. Pandas are endangered; we must prevent their extinction. _

Irene came windy
She flooded our town
Destroying houses
Knocking the trees down
Trying our patience
Waiting for the sound
Of the rip ninety
Seven point nine

Rags was the bright star in Rusty's world. They did everything together with Rags in the lead. Rusty loved the life shared with the other clowns but Rags made the good times awesome. Rags loved the peace that Rusty carried inside and the way it calmed everyone around him. Their quiet life was destroyed by a wave of madness; Janus had arrived.

Janus sauntered into the ring, looking at the spectators doing doubletakes at his two faces. He spoke earily from his western mouth" Rusty are you in the front trying to hide in plain sight? " Then his eastern mouth whistled a low, long plaitant why. " Why did you leave? " Rags moved closer to protect his friend but Rusty motioned for him to stay back.

Rags had hoped that Rusty would stay forever. He wished Janus would find another parsec to invade. When Rusty came into his life Rags perceived that he possessed an unreal sense of time. Rusty lived in the present, with no thought of the past or future. This was the source of his endless grace.

Rusty was suddenly flooded with emotions ranging from rage to despair to joy. He chastised Rags for leaving the door open allowing Janus in. In seconds he began to come apart, with pieces of him being torn off by invisible fingers and then tossed into a wave that appeared in the room and swept Rusty out. Rags had nothing left but tears.

Chapter five
Frosty arrived at the town hall and asked to see town attorney Dylan Cuevas. He was shown into the hearing room and told to wait until Mr. Cuevas returned from court. Frosty impatiently stood by the door dripping. Rags wondered how long Frosty would or could wait. " Maybe we should make an appointment so you don't melt. " Frosty vacillated and the puddle grew. Just as he was ready to go Dylan came in with the janitor. Frosty smiled at him and began to speak.

" Maybe I am expecting too much, it seems to me that leaving a person to melt is rude and boneheaded. Suppose I had witnessed a crime; melted snowmen can't give testimony. They can't identify perpetrators or clear the innocent. The point is. . . " With that Frosty's last piece of coal fell to the floor. Stopping his disintigration wasn't possible by that point.

Rags stared at puddle. He said goodbye to Dylan and slowly started home stopping along the way for jimmies and chocolate chocolate chip.

Chapter four

Rags tried all of Frosty's favorite places,the skating rink, the sherbert shop, and the shake shack. He found no clue so he retraced his steps to the jewelery shop where he saw Frosty harassing the owner. " The nugget belongs to me! It is rightfully mine! What have you done with my book? I insist you return it at once! "

Just as the jeweler moved toward the panic alarm Rags came in. Rags knew that the jeweler was someone who could be trusted; he had held his huge ruby for many years when Rags did'nt have a safe. " Frosty stop! Tyson wouldn't steal the nugget, but if you stop screaming he might help you. Tyson is a good man. "

" Who is this snowman? Is he responsible for the snow in front of my store? What is the nugget? Why would I have it? " Frosty realized Tyson was not the person he was looking for. " Do you make frilly scarf pins? " " No. " " Ok, my mistake. " Frosty blew out the door with Rags running to keep up.

Chapter three

The frozen landscape sparkled in the sunlight. Rags wished he was ambling alongside Rusty instead of running behind while Frosty blew on ahead. They arrived in time to see the jeweler close for the night. The sign on the glass door said " Closed for yesterday" which Rags found odd and sent Frosty into a rage.

Frosty filled the evening air with screams of frustrastion. He had howling mostly catagorized by his anger and he was at blizzard level. Rags knew stopping him was impossible so he waited for the storm to subside. While he hid in the doorway, Rags thought of Rusty. Now they would be discussing their plans for the next day, eating their dinner and enjoying their peaceful home. Rusty was thinking how Rags would be reading aloud from the New York Times and making ice cream sundaes with jimmies. Snowmen have no sense of time, and Frosty did not need sleep so the storm went on till the sun rose.

The jeweler arrived to find his sidewalk had six feet of snow and an irate snowman. Rags was buried in the drift by the doorway. The jeweler wrote another note closed the shop till noon and called Drew his friend with a snowplow. Drew arrived an hour later angled the plow so that the storefront would not be damaged and soon the snow was gone revealing Rags. He was sleeping. Rags woke up to his nightmare; Frosty was missing.