When Sara Penhallegon found out she and the volunteers at Center Valley Animal Rescue would be taking care of eight malnourished bison, she knew she had a big job in front of her. “They’re not like cattle, and they’re not like horses,” Penhallegon said. “They are a semi-wild animal. They’re somewhat dangerous.” The bison had been placed in the care of Center Valley after they were taken from Chimacum’s Dennis “Denver” Shoop, who had been charged with eight counts of animal cruelty. “When Terry Taylor (Jefferson County animal control officer) got the first call about the bison in the field, he called me, and we did an assessment over the fence,” Penhallegon said. Once Shoop was charged, Center Valley transferred the bison to its center. “We just had to jump in and say, ‘OK, hope we don’t die today,’” she said. “It was probably four or five hours … We slowly worked to get them into the trailer and get them loaded. Two of them fell out of the trailer because they were so weak, but they did get back up.” Once the bison were in their care, Penhallegon said she got them eating and drinking, and began medical treatments, of IV fluids, vitamins and mineral injections. “They were as emaciated as they could get,” Penhallegon said. “They were bones with skin stretched over them.” One bison in particular was struggling, she said, and she soon noticed it was pregnant. “She was one of the slowest to recover and the reason was that all the nutrition was going to the baby,” Penhallegon said. Several weeks later, the bison prematurely gave birth. But while the mom immediately began to bond with her baby, it was too weak to nurse. “We were tube feeding him and filling his stomach up, and it just wasn’t enough,” Penhallegon said. “Every time we would take him from his mom to tube-feed him, she would get angry. We ended up pulling him for good at about 24 hours.” Penhallegon named the baby Tatanka and has been taking care of him. While the other bison regained health and were relocated to a different pasture, Tatanka became too attached to Penhallegon to stay with the others. “He is so bonded to me,” Penhallegon said. “Assuming the case goes the right way, my husband and I will be taking him. I’m talking with zoo behaviorists and preparing myself. We’re going to build a new barn. Bison have a lot of special needs. These guys aren’t like any animal I’ve ever taken care of.”