Billy and Dominic

They call me Billy, and where I live the sun almost always shines and the weather is aggressively warm. From the edge of the property, well beyond the fence, I can see the sparkling blue ocean, and all day long you can hear the waves crashing on the beach. My living quarters are spacious, and I have all the amenities one could want. There was only one problem with living here, it was kind of lonely.

I am very social, and if it were up to me I'd always have plenty of company, but since I have been living here, I have not had many friends and mostly kept to myself. Not that I have been all alone, there have been others around, we just never got very close. Linda, the woman who runs the place, and her husband are great, and they are often around, but always very busy. Then we have the monkeys, but I think you have to be a monkey to like them, because I find that they are too much for me and I would much rather be alone than spend time with them. There were always all kinds of other animals here as well. In fact the world's only two golden zebras live here. Imagine they are the only two in the whole world and even they had each other. But, who wants to hang out with zebras all day? Many of the animals only stay a short period of time, and few live here permanently like the zebras. Still, I would spend my days on my own, and that would certainly get boring, and sometimes it would make me sad. As sad as you can get in a place like this. All that changed when my roommate and best buddy moved here.

When Linda told me one day after lunch that we were getting a new resident who was going to be my roommate, I was just as excited as one could be. That was until I met him. Now, I do not think I was rude, and believe me, I could have been, because Dominic is a little strange and when I first saw him, I thought he was one of the funniest looking guys I have ever seen, and he smelled atrocious. Then there's his voice. Dominic's voice takes a little getting used to, it's nasal and high pitched, and honky, he sounds kinda like a car horn. But, to this day, I have never made fun of him for any of that. The day he arrived, I was as welcoming as a puppy. He, on the other hand, came in here and acted like he owned the place, barking, or honking for that matter, orders at me and trying to push me around. The very first thing he did was yell at me, and tell me to stay away from him. This made me think he was an arrogant, aggressive, pushy, bossy little prick. I could not believe what an asshole he was, and to think I was so looking forward to meeting him. I figured if he was going to act like that, I'd rather live with the monkeys.

Over the next few days he stayed far away from me. The only time he interacted with me at all, was to complain, mostly about me.

One morning I woke up bright and early and slowly wandered over to him to try and start a game with him. I offered to play every game I could think of with him but he was having none of it. Any time I would try to get his attention, he would just flat out ignore me. Once when I got a little too close for his comfort, he even tried to kick me. Which was the last straw. Who did he think he was? I mean like what the hell was this guy's problem? I didn't ask for him to move in here, as far as I knew, he and Linda arranged for him to be my roommate, so if he was gonna kick someone, he should kick her, not me, and besides if I wanted to, I could of crushed that little twerp, I still could.

After the kick incident, I thought it was impossible, I was sure he was never gonna come around, which made me a little sad. Linda told me that I needed to be patient, she said to just give him more time. So I took her advice and just went about my own business.

Days had gone by, and Dominic was giving me nothing. All he wanted to do was stare at the ocean. Then he did something that completely surprised me. While I was taking a swim, I heard the front gate slam closed, and I thought it was Linda coming to visit, so I jumped out of the water, and quickly dried myself to go greet her. To my surprise she was nowhere to be found, and neither was Domininc. I looked all over for him, when it became clear that the sound I heard was not Linda coming in, but Domininc going out. I wondered where the heck he could be going, when I heard the stupid Monkey’s go ape shit. I was pretty sure those idiots were being extra because Dominic had wandered over near them. I went to see what was going on, and as I expected, there was Dominic checking them out. I guess he had never seen a monkey before. I know I hadn't before I moved here, and now that I have, I can tell you, they are nothing but disgusting shit throwers, and it’s best to just avoid them.

Although he did not want anything to do with me, I felt a tiny bit obligated to make sure Dominic didn't get lost. So I decided to go with him. However, when I went to open the front gate, it was stuck. I tried pressing it gently but it didn't budge. I considered hopping over, but it was a little higher than I felt fully comfortable with, so I gave the gate a really good bump, and still nothing. Then I stepped back and got a running start and ran right into it, really giving it a good whack, and what do you know? It opened. Okay, technically it fell over but either way, I was out.

Although Dominic was acting like one of those monkeys, he must have realized they were not worth the time of day because by the time I got over there he had wandered off. I walked nearly the entire property looking for him and he was nowhere to be found, which meant there was only one place he could have gone. I made my way to the property front entrance, and peered out to see if I could get an eye line on him, and of course, there he was, standing by the side of the road. Oh boy, this guy was a piece of work, I thought. Clearly he didn't know how dangerous it was to be standing out there. What was he doing out there anyway? Hitch hiking? I tried yelling out to him, encouraging him to just come back on the property and he either ignored me or could not hear me. I didn't want to go after him, but he was really gonna get himself hurt or lost without me, so I had no choice.

I wondered where the hell Linda and her husband had gone because I had not seen them anywhere on the property. I went over to their house and found there was no one home. Which meant it was up to me to go get Dominic. The front entrance gate was not locked so I pushed it wide open and took off after him, he was now way down the road.

After a pretty vigorous run, I caught up to him, and tried to convince him to come back home, but he was dead set on going on this little trip. Although he would not tell me so, I started to believe he was trying to make his way down to the beach, but If I didn't know how to get there for sure he had no idea. Thankfully, there were not a lot of cars on the road, and the few we did see, moved past us very slowly, some even stopped. At one point a cop pulled over, got out of his car, stared at us for a minute, scratched his head, then got back in his car and drove off.

Things were really not so bad, we lived in paradise, so a walk around was not the end of the world. Until it started to rain. This was not just a little rain, this was one of those rainstorms that only happens on a tropical island like this. This was like buckets of water being dropped on our heads, and we were all out in the open with nowhere to seek cover. The rain also meant this was no longer a day to go to the beach, and with the sun quickly falling, things started to get ugly. Still, Dominic did not want to turn around.

When the last bit of light left the sky and the full dominance of the darkness set in, Dominic came to his senses, and finally agreed that we should get back. Really? I thought to myself Really? Now? This is what it took for you to realize we should go home? Standing on the side of the road soaking wet in a torrential rainstorm with no cover was not enough? You need all that and complete darkness to think this was a bad idea? I said all of this in my head. Outwardly, I kept my cool. It was not until I literally had to risk my own life to save his dumb ass that I lost it.

I will resist saying it happened because he's just stupid, and I won't blame it on his stubbornness. It was probably just because of the poor visibility and maybe his inexperience, or even just being unfamiliar with the area, but it was still all Dominics fault. I could hear the low hum of a vehicle approaching, and eventually I could even feel the vibrations from the engine, so I knew to stay off the road. Dominic however, did not seem to pick up on the warning signs that a vehicle was rapidly approaching. He was standing in the middle of the road when I first encouraged him to move out of the way. He ignored me and the car got closer and closer. My warnings got more and more aggressive and he still did not move. Finally when I saw the light of the car turning the bend I knew that he was going to get hit, and I had to take action. I ran full speed at him, shoving him out of the way just in time. The car came so close that I was blinded by the lights, and it swerved to avoid hitting me at the last second, nearly driving off the road.

Furious with him, I lost my shit, and started telling him off, I should have killed him myself. I was stomping my feet and taking deep hard breaths expressing all of my frustration with this jackass. Would you believe he had the nerve to be mad at me? Claiming that I shoved him too hard. After a few minutes of fussing we both calmed down. I was mad, but ultimately I was just happy that neither one of us got injured, which would have made this situation significantly worse. Maybe it was because he was scared, or maybe he had realized that he could have been lost out here alone, and would likely have gotten killed by that car, if I had not insisted on coming with him, but it seemed like he was starting to warm up to me. I had risked my own life to save him, and put all this effort into being his friend and it seemed like it was starting to pay off. I wont say I am glad it happened, cause I am not, and he is still a… well he is still a jerk for causing it, but it was a pivotal moment in our relationship.

This experience also made it clear to me that it was dangerous for us to keep wandering around with such poor visibility, and I convinced Dominic that it would be best if we just stayed in one place and waited for help. To my surprise Dominic not only acknowledged my suggestion he agreed. This was progress and a sign we were headed towards friendship. We found a clearing on the side of the road that was the perfect place to be seen by someone that might be searching for us, and I plopped down in the grass. Dominic actually joined me, he even gave me a friendly nudge. As we waited, the rain stopped and the sky cleared revealing a big bright moon whose light reflected off the ocean, making for a beautiful scene. We waited in silence, both of us taking in the beauty of the island we were lucky enough to call home, when in the distance I saw red flashing lights, the first sign that help was on its way. Soon a herd of cars, with lights and sirens wailing, covered the road next to us. Dominic and I both started to get nervous, until finally I saw Linda’s face and I knew we were going to be okay. I had never been so happy to see her. She helped Dominic and I into the truck and finally it was over and we were headed home.

Linda was very upset at us for leaving, and for staying out that late and getting lost, but she was ultimately happy to have us back. I knew that she had forgiven us when a few days after our little trip, we had a visit from a group of high school students. While giving the students a tour of the sanctuary I heard Linda say:

“Over here in this large pen on the right we have our two trouble makers Dominic and Billy. This unlikely pair of an American Bison and a Donkey, today are inseparable. When we first rescued Billy, an American Bison, the only one in all of Hawaii, we knew that because he was a herd animal, he would need a companion. Being that another Bison was not likely, we came up with a plan to pair him with a donkey. First we had to ensure that the Donkey would be safe. At around 2,000 lbs Billy could do alot of damage. So we wanted the donkey to be the more dominant of the two. To achieve this we simply waited until Dominic was a little bit older to castrate him and move him in with Billy. This we believed would give Dominic a more assertive and authoritative attitude, making Billy more submissive. The plan worked. For the first couple of days it was touch and go, but they eventually became good friends and now they are inseparable. So much so that not that long ago, thanks to a clever donkey and a mindless delivery guy, the two escaped the sanctuary, setting off a massive search effort that stretched into the night. Luckily, they were seen by a highway patrolman and the police also received a call from a hysterical driver that reported almost hitting a buffalo. With these two clues on their location we had a good idea of where to look and we soon found them together, sitting on a cliff, and we were able to bring them home safely.”

After bragging about us to the students, it was time for my favorite part of having visitors. Linda guided each of them through feeding me all of my favorite foods. Dominic, being the hard ass he is, never participates, but that just means more for me.