Mondays are hard. Everyone knows that. So what we really need is some kind of enthusiasm-booster chair, to help us see over the dreary week’s work ahead. Okay, you deserve it. Here’s just the thing.

Mickey the Beaver

Mickey the Beaver came into the life of Doris Forbes and her parents in 1939. High school student Jean Yuill found the kit on a sidewalk in Red Deer, Alberta, and happened to bring him to the nearby Forbes home.

The family nursed the injured kit back to health, raising him from when he was only twenty-five centimetres long until he was more than a metre in length.

Can you imagine Mikey’s life? Dressed in doll clothes or pushed in a stroller to a tea party here all the other children ooh and ahh over his curious tail? Doris’ unique pet has been discussed on this site before. There is even a statue dedicated to her in Red Deer Park. Mickey must have been a kind of cash monkey. In this photo he’s posing with a “Dainty white loaf” Beavers, by the way, do not eat bread. It makes them constipated I have heard.

Mickey would come when called by name and would go for swims in the nearby creek, always following the family home. He’d even make dams out of slippers in their home — after the family trained him to stop gnawing at the furniture.

When Doris Forbes was sick, Mickey would go to her bedroom every day to visit — the beaver even caught whooping cough from the young girl. The two were inseparable; Mickey was Doris’s best friend.

“He’s the best pet I ever had, and I love him with all my heart,” she said.

Now that I completely believe. Beavers are very social and personable and a pet orphan is likely to be very demonstrative of affection, because he is missing any. No word yet on what all the trappers of the day, who love to describe beavers as vicious and aggressive, thought of this sweet story. They surely must of heard it because Doris and Mickey were big news.

When “The Tale of Mickey the Beaver” (The Beaver, December 1941) was published, the Forbes had been raising Mickey for more than two years. This is just one of the stories you’ll find in our online archive of The Beaver, Canada’s History, and Kayak magazines. Using the new online search function, search “Mickey the Beaver” to see even more photos of Doris and her furry friend.

Ahh Mickey I hope you life ended kindly and you got to live in someones pond or something. Searching the Canadian archives looks like fun. Thanks for the rainy day suggestion! There’s even a section just on Voyageurs and lots of info about the fur trade. Just in case readers need to learn more about this story, here’s a short video of her story and statue by a recent visitor.

This amazing photograph is of Doris Forbes and her beloved beaver, Mickey, the official Mascot of the city I wrote about last week where a beaver had attacked several dogs at a local dog park. In 1939 the kit was found mauled by dogs and unable to use his back legs, and cared for by the Forbes. (Mrs. Forbes was a nurse.) He recovered from his injuries and lived in their home until he got too big and then had a special place built for him in the garage. As many as 200 letters arrived a day for Mickey and his keeper, Doris. Sometimes as many as 50 would stop by to see the beaver, who was especially attached to the little girl.

Mickey lived for 9 years as the beloved pet of the Forbes and became the official Mascot of Red Deer. He died peacefully in his sleep and he and Doris became the subject of a bronze statue in town. Footage of him appeared in hollywood films, his image sparked the design for a beaver costume, and his story was told by Kerry Wood in a novel called “Mickey the beaver and other stories”. In his peaceful, well-loved life he taught people about beavers and the good that they can do. And his memory certainly shaped the mercy that dog owners were able to show in saying the beavers shouldn’t be killed.

Except one was.

Someone shot one of the Red Deer beavers. The body of a 3-4 year old beaver was found Monday by a canoer, and the town is reeling from the shock that someone would bring a weapon into a city park and take matters into their own hands. This is the kind of shocking death that breaks through the barriers if a woman who reads about 10 beaver killings a week. We were so close. The city had listened to options, the residents had defended the beavers, 4 property owners offered relocation, and the city was starting to realize that it may not even be necessary with a little intelligent fencing.

And one of the beavers was shot.

Again I ask, was it mom? Was it dad? Was it the ‘guilty beaver’? Will there be more? Will the person be back tonight or tomorrow to take out the rest of the colony?

The town of Red Deer has been shaped for 70 years by stories of beavers. With the massive import of the fur trade it is safe to say that beavers are the bookends holding together its entire existence. It had better do right by them.