So yesterday I was home alone, minding my own business, when the phone rings and it’s an NBC reporter wanting to ask about the chewed tree photos I put on FB. Turns out one of their reporters reads the site and told her to follow up. So over she comes and we waltz into an interview on camera in my living room. About whether or not I think the beavers are ‘back’, why cities get upset about them and what people can do to help. That’s all fine with me. I expect to be on permanent beaver call.

What I didn’t expect  was that the camera man (child) would – after the interview and after removing the camera – set down his 4 heavy 4 foot tripod 4 feet away and it would fall with a lumbering CRASH because he hadn’t set it down properly and it would miss my very important baby toe by a fraction of a fraction of an inch.

Honestly the noise it made when tipping alone – not to mention his hunched Igor status – told me how very, very heavy that thing was. I would be have spent the afternoon in the E.R. And I suppose it would have been fitting in a way, To be injured by a cameraman while talking about beavers.

But my house was built in 1898 and has at least one very friendly spirit who makes himself known in various mostly friendly ways from time time to time – one of which being the habit of dropping things in very dramatic ways without hurting anyone. Once every single one of our plates and cups fell from the wall and the cat, who was in the tiny kitchen at the time, was mercifully spared and when we ran in alarm to check coolly picked his way across the shards.

And once a heavy tripod fell a millimeter’s distance from my bare toes and missed me by the scant thickness of a hair and I was fine. Thanks Friendly Spirit.

So the interview was on the TeeVee last night, and a kickstand of concern has been artfully laid to protect the beavers by making them visible to the people that saved them last time. She wanted to talk to the city too so I gave her Mark Ross’s cell phone; On a whim Jon went down scouting for beavers last night but  he saw narry a one. I suppose we shall see what transpires. This may turn out to be nothing, but it might be a beaver shot across the bow, so to speak.

At least our beavers will get slightly better odds than these in Missouri:

Twin Lakes Memo

Beavers have chewed their way through trees at Twin Lakes Recreation Area — including some planted as memorials for loved ones. Families have paid $250 each for these trees to memorialize family members or friends and work colleagues who have died.

The affected trees lie along the southeast corner of the lake inside the recreation area. The stumps can be found just outside of a gate to a fenced-in dog area and continue further inside. Dave Dittmer, forester for the city Parks and Recreation Department, said that department crew members first reported the damage to the trees in December.

Sorry about Grandma, but PLEASE PLEASE can I have my memorial tree eaten by beavers? Can’t you just imagine my plaque next to that whittled beaver chew. Maybe with some artfully scattered woodchips?

“Here lies Heidi, she truly gave beavers all she could”

In a post on Facebook showing the damage to the trees, one user commented that beavers have been doing similar damage to trees around Cedar Lake, which is located just south of Southampton Drive a few blocks west of Providence Road.. Discussion in the comments of the same Facebook post contained some users calling for the beavers to be relocated, and others urging that the beavers be left alone.

Dittmer talked to the Conservation Department about relocating the beavers, he said. He was told it’s not possible to relocate them at this time because the beavers would starve, as they store and hide their food for the winter season.

I guess beavers don’t walk around or go to coffee houses anymore to find stories. They just scan facebook. There but for the grace of everyone in town go our beavers. Martinez has some lucky little flat-tails,that’s all I can say. Here’s a reminder from our friend Emily Fairfax why we were also lucky to have them in the first place.