Dear Narb,

Just so you won’t get confused, as you humans so often do, I’ll tell you who this is right off the bat. I’m the one you call Buddy, the big boy with the arrow scar at the top of my left shoulder, right where what you call ‘backstrap’ begins. Hey, don’t feel bad that you think you want to kill me and eat me, I get that from a lot of creatures. There’s an old cougar who gets down to the sand once in a while and she’d love to take me down. But I’m too big for her old bones. I just have to keep the young’uns in tight when I smell her or see her around. The females do that better than I do, but I’m in charge, mostly.

I decided to send you this letter because you seem to be open to the possibility. I can’t say that about most humans. Most humans look at the world through a very tiny window and suffer greatly from a failure of imagination. Actions speak very loudly and human interaction with the world makes this obvious. What are you thinking? Do you really think you can survive yourselves?

We’ll talk more about this in letters to come. In the meantime, enjoy your time here and wave the next time you see me. I’ll rattle my antlers at you.

Your pal,
Buddy