Behind the bison paddock

   When I first came to live in San Francisco almost nine years ago, the bison paddock in Golden Gate Park was a refuge for me. I loved to watch these animals, admired how docile and peaceful they seemed, loved how tourists would come to see them, but not so many that it would disturb the quiet and peace of the place. I would bring visitors to see them, and even managed on one occasion to leave ecstatically with a clump of their stinky fur that had become wedged in one of the fences containing them. I also saw my first wild red tailed fox here.
   Over the years I have become enamored with other parts of the park (especially Stow Lake), and have visited the bison less, but over the past year or so have regularly been visiting the North Lake, which is just west, across Chain of Lakes Drive East, and crossing back over east, one finds themselves behind the bison paddock, as pictured below.
   It was here that I had my longest encounter with a coyote, and I regularly hear owls calling when it is nearing dusk. It's behind a paddock, and outside of it my mind tends to run freer than usual.

There are bison yonder in those fields