I had a saying for 15 years that I might decide to replace. The saying was that “Beavers change things” which is still true today and no less relevant but I’m approaching full embrace of a new saying. “Beavers get over things“.  This is based on their remarkable and increasingly emerging ability to adapt. Habituate. ADAPT. To whatever seems to happen in their lives. Captured and stored in a fish pond before relocation? They adapt. Rehabbed in somebodies living room for a year? They adapt. Beavers seem to make a considerable effort to change things to their liking, They try and try over and over again. With their friends and without getting irritated or annoyed.

And then, with very little ceremony or fanfare, if they can’t beat it, join it.

Patti Smith | View from Heifer Hill: A strange beaver tale

I wrote of the possible existence of this beaver kit in June when I found that his mother, Dew, a beaver who had been living in isolation for a year, was about to give birth. The only other beaver in I had seen in this watershed was Dew’s half-sister, Gentian, so the most likely explanation for her pregnancy was, I told myself, immaculate conception

I was not surprised that Dew would be so chosen. Those of you who have read this column before will not need to be told why Dew is an extraordinary beaver. You will know that she has survived numerous trials, including the wounds inflicted by the bear that killed her mother.

Because I had been busy with other beavers over the summer, I couldn’t return to visit Dew and meet her holy child until late September. There was no sign of them in the pond where I had last seen her. No worries. Beavers move often. For a week, I searched along the rest of the brook and then along the tributaries. I found no beavers anywhere and feared the worst.

Patti does her best to locate Dew and then she gives up. Thinking that maybe something happened to her and focusing her attention on her sister Gentian. Did she ever mate? Why don’t they live closer together? In looking for Dew she notices something very very surprising.

Since then, I have been heading down to the brook most nights. I most often see Gentian at work in a new pond in the downstream section. Dew inhabits the upstream portion. One night, in the upstream region, I saw a beaver swimming underwater, the biggest beaver I had ever seen in this brook. I checked and then checked again. This beaver had no tail. He swam under a submerged log to hide. Beavers can hold their breath for 15 minutes in a pinch. I had no wish to cause a pinch for this fellow, so I set out to look for the other beavers.

A beaver with NO TAIL! Is such a thing possible? Of course it is. Beavers get over it. This beaver knew when to be cautious. And probably had to adapt some muscles to master swimming and diving without the equipment. But he had found a life and a mate.

Two actually.

As this puzzle piece clicked into place, a very curious picture was beginning to emerge: a beaver that suffered such a traumatic injury might well become extremely wary. Such a beaver might be invisible to a distracted beaver watcher for months. He was probably the beaver I had seen in Gentian’s territory, too. This fellow was the likely father of Dew’s kit. I think that when the puzzle is completed, the picture will reveal the sisters living next door to each other and sharing a mate. There are still enough pieces missing that I could be very wrong.

Downstream I found Gentian deftly cleaving the bark from a birch branch. Upstream, Dew swam over to say hello and enjoy an apple. Tendrils of mist flowed across the pond as the night cooled. I saw the tiny beaver near the spot where I had first seen the beaver with no tail. The small creature seemed preternaturally calm. As he climbed ashore to groom, I contemplated his parentage. His father might not be a deity, but he surely has superpowers. How else would a beaver survive the loss of such a major appendage? How else could he adapt to life without it? This little beaver has no halo, but he has some stellar genes.

A beaver with two wives and no tail! Now this is Patti talking here so we can only believe her. If such a thing were true and possible she would be the one to see it. People survive all kinds of amputations but they have prosthetics to help them out. Not beavers. No one will ever get warned by him again.

But still. A tail eaten by a bear is better than a beaver eaten by a bear. And beavers get over it.