Old Man Beaver and other Animal Anecdotes

I go to school at a small Bible college near a river, surrounded by a small area of woods. 

The campus is home to plenty of wildlife...and I'm not talking about the students, actually. The following is a small collection of the various strange animal encounters that have taken place over my time here. 

1. A Cat Named Cheez-it

For a while, there were a ton of stray cats on the campus, to the point where Residence Life had to order us not to feed them. One of them apparently had kittens, because there were several very young cats running around during my sophomore year. Two girls who lived off campus named one John the Baptist (don't ask me why) and took it home with them. Most of the others wandered away or went to go live in the woods, but there was one that stayed. She was a tiny, skinny, grey and black tabby with spots between the stripes. At first, she was deathly afraid of all humans and wouldn't go near them. Then, the girls in my building took it upon themselves to domesticate the feral cat. We lured her to the porch with Cheez-its (which is how she got her name), and over a course of two or three weeks, we had gained her trust. Eventually, any one of us could just snap our fingers and call, "Cheez-it!" and she would jump out of the bushes and follow us wherever we were going. 

     It actually took considerably longer to get her to trust guys, for some reason, but my older brother (who loves cats) helped things along by carrying cat treats in his trench coat pockets. Unfortunately, we spoiled Cheez-it, and Res Life caught her begging for food in front of the cafeteria. Once again, it was reiterated that we weren't supposed to feed the cats, and we started to worry that animal control might come for our favorite stray. Then, one of the girls on my hall announced that the Russian school a little ways down the street was having a mouse problem and had asked for a cat to take care of it. So now Cheez-it actually has a home, and a job. We were sad to see her go, but it's nice to know she didn't go to a shelter.

2. The Horse.

There's not much to say for this one except one day, out of the blue, somebody rode a horse onto campus, around the buildings, and back out again. It would've been one thing if it was a nice-looking horse, but it was the scruffiest, saggiest, saddest, most pathetic looking creature I've ever seen on hooves. I've also seen it being ridden down the sidewalk headed for town. With no explanations.

3. Bones.

One morning last semester, I left the main classroom building to discover a knot of students crowded around something. It was a large, male pit bull, and he was so thin that you could see every single one of his ribs. Despite the fearsome reputation of pit bulls and the size of this fellow, he was the sweetest dog I've ever met. The students were trying to keep him there so that someone could call an animal rescue unit, because the poor creature was pretty clearly starving. Somebody got him a bowl of water and I played with him a little. I don't know, maybe it was because he was the same colors as the basset hound I had when I was a little girl, but I didn't want to go to my next class. (I did, though.)

4. The Deer-ly Departed

This one also takes place sophomore year. I was coming back from work a little late one evening, and was hiking up from the parking lot to the back of my building. As I'm fishing the keys out of my purse to try and wrestle the stubborn door open, something catches my attention. In the back yard space of the dorm next door (which, at the time, belonged to guys. Now it belongs to girls and I live in it.) there's this metal pole about four feet high. Stuck to the top of it was a head. A deer's head. I walked over warily, thinking it was fake. Nope! Actual deer's head, actual blood. While not scared or disgusted, I was slightly concerned. The next day, I was telling a friend about it while in the lunch line and I didn't realize that the head of Student Life was behind us. That night, the head was gone. I didn't learn until years later that apparently what had happened was a guy in the dorms had been walking in the woods and found a dead deer. If I remember correctly, he hauled it back to his room, cleaned it (In his room!) and put the head on the pole. His roommate came back to find him making jerky. Now I know why this building used to smell so weird.

5. Gobbledygook.

Did I mention we have turkeys? Only two or three people have actually seen them, but they're there. A friend of mine went down to the lake to look for Old Man Beaver (more on that later) and texted me to say that there were three wild turkeys down there. Me being me, I told him to catch one so we could eat it. Evidently he decided to take me up on that. I'm not entirely sure what happened after that, but I do know that the three turkeys didn't take kindly to it and chased him back up the path. Turkeys can be mean!

6. Pooh, is that You?

To quote and old Royal Guardsmen song, There's bears in the stairs, and sometimes in pairs./Very difficult to get along with. One of my friends is a very outdoorsy type. She went hiking a year or so ago in the woods behind our dorm. While out among the trees, she heard something moving through the underbrush. At first, she thought it was a deer, so she stayed to watch for it. Then she thought to herself, "Hmm...deer walk on top of leaves and roots. Whatever this is is just ploughing through the leaves!" Sure enough, it was no deer. Something big, dark, furry and fat came shuffling along through the woods. 

Yep. It was a bear. 

I assume that she left fairly quickly. This is actually not the first sign of bears we've had. On two separate occasions, with two separate guys, someone found pawprints and...other signs...

That's one of the reasons students aren't supposed to go into the woods alone.

7. Old Man Beaver

I moved here when I was about eleven or twelve years old. My dad took me and one of my sisters hiking out in the campus woods one day, when the trees were thicker and the pond was smaller. There was this overturned rowboat on the far edge of the pond, and a beaver had taken up residence in it. My sister and I went over and knocked on the boat. I'd never heard a beaver hiss before, but it was not a friendly sound. Some nine years later, the pond was widened into a lake and the beaver's boat-house was gone. There was a little island in the middle of the water, and the beaver had built a lodge there. I went down there with my sister, a friend, and her two little brothers. We were showing the little boys the beaver's tracks and where he came in and out of the water, etc. 

     There was a big old tree, about as big around as the two boys standing back to back, that the beaver had been trying to gnaw down for some time. He'd already chipped away a third of it, to my surprise. Since my friend Carrie's little brothers had ridden their bikes down to the lake, one of them still had his helmet on. Carrie looked at him and asked, "Why do you still have that on? You don't need it now." The seven year old looked thoughtful for a moment and answered, "In case of beavers." We must've looked confused, because he explained, "Beavers are very sneaky. I have to wear this helmet because he might be in the tree. He will yell, Hallooo! And when I look up, he'll drop on me." Now, I'm already trying not to laugh my head off at this little boy using Winnie-the-Pooh quotes, but the whole idea of crankly old Mr. Beaver being up a tree was pretty funny. 

     Yesterday, I went back down to that lake for the first time this year. The whole island is completely overgrown with thorn thickets. I got caught in them several times because I somehow decided it'd be a good idea to force my way through. It wasn't. Anyway, I managed to get halfway over the tiny island and discovered that the beaver's lodge was now huge. He'd finally managed to get that tree down, along with several others, and most of it was furnishing the walls of his house. As I managed to free myself from the prickles, I heard a distinct, watery slap! I don't know if it was Old Man Beaver or not, but there were suddenly ripples in the water that hadn't been there before. I kind of hope to actually see him one of these days.

Carnadine House, chapter 2

Hey, remember the chapter of that story I posted a few months ago? I've finally decided to write more, if anyone was interested :P

     "Mr. Creed, was it?" Laurel Dent draped herself elegantly over the back of her seat. "You're American, aren't you? What brings you out to a village like this?" The scruffy young man smiled and sat down in the bus aisle, cross-legged like a child. "Oh, a bit of the old ennui, I suppose. I took a term abroad and decided to explore a little with some school chums of mine." He waved enthusiastically at Harry Windstrum at the front of the bus. The rich passenger cringed and sank slightly in his seat. "I do wish he would pretend not to know us in public," he complained to his seatmate. "He is very friendly," Algie agreed. Gingerly, the smaller man returned Creed's greeting with a shy smile of his own. "Hullo, Viktor. Enjoying the trip so far?" Viktor laughed loudly. "Not spectacularly, Evans. This old rust bucket's a bit of an adventure on its own, isn't it?" Mr. Ridgely scowled from his seat at the front. Americans! Did they have to be so blunt?

     Abruptly, the creaking hulk groaned to a sudden halt, throwing its occupants forward. Evelyn shrieked as she tumbled over the back of the seat and landed between the Alsburgs. "I'm so terribly sorry!" she cried, hastily righting herself. "Not at all, my dear," the doctor assured her gruffly, "Are you alright?" Laurel stood with a jerk and planted her hands on her hips. "Hey driver! Are you trying to kill us all?" she demanded, "What was that?" Carlisle gulped and pointed to the road ahead. "There's a fellow stranded!" he excused himself, "Look! I just thought I'd stop and see if he needed help, right?" Mr. Ridgely glared and leaned down to whisper, "Have you looked at the clouds, Carlisle? This is no time to play Good Samaritan!" The door opened and a disheveled man sporting a three-day beard climbed in. "I say!" the tour leader sputtered, "This is a closed tour! You can't just barge into my bus like this!" Without even looking at him, the newcomer pressed several pound notes into Ridgely's hand. "I'm on the roster. You left without me," he rasped. The corpulent man counted the bills and raised his eyebrows. "So you are! Terribly sorry for the inconvenience, sir. Do have a seat!" 

     

     The stranger made his way to the back of the bus, ignoring the suspicious looks everyone else cast in his direction. Viktor jumped up and made room for him, nodding easily. "Good afternoon," he began. "Not particularly," the man cut him off. Creed smiled a little, undaunted, but did not attempt conversation again. "I don't like the looks of that fellow," Mrs. Alsburg whispered to Ms. Heathering, "You'd better stay up here with Jack and me, dear. I shouldn't like the idea of any daughter of mine sitting so close to such unsavory characters! I'm sure your mother agrees." Mrs. Heathering actually had given no thought to the matter at all, but at the wealthy woman's pointed look, she quickly espoused the virtues of a proper chaperone on any voyage. All previous conversations died away and an uncomfortable silence pervaded the coach. "Now see here, Ridgely," Mr. Windstrum hissed, "That fellow was most certainly not on the roster. I can see it from here! You can't go around picking up strangers, money or no!" The tour leader fixed him with an icy stare and mopped his brow with the ever-present handkerchief. "Young man, who, exactly, is running this tour? You or I? I'll take what passengers I deem fit, thank you very much!" The ginger leaned back into his bench, highly unsatisfied. "Mark my words, mate. There'll be trouble over this later," he muttered darkly to Algie. The shy botanist pretended not to hear his friend and buried himself in his book.

     The winding mountain road began to give way to rough path and stone, jostling the passengers terribly. Pop! With a loud report, the bus lurched suddenly to the side and stopped altogether. "Don't tell me!" Mr. Ridgely groaned. "We've burst a tire," Laurel announced, deadpan. "Not that I'm surprised." Mrs. Heathering tsk'd quietly at the reporter's attitude. "Bad luck," she hummed under her breath. At that moment, thunder rumbled ominously. Dr. Alsburg stood and edged out into the aisle. "Ladies and gentlemen!" he called in a distinguished voice, "May I have your attention?" he cast a withering glare at the driver and tour guide. "Storms in the mountains are, I think, rather more serious than storms in town. I, for one, have no intention of risking my wife's delicate health in a rattling deathtrap that may or may not leak." He turned to the driver. "Now look, we're awfully close to this Carnadine House, aren't we? I say we all walk the rest of the way in hopes of finding shelter before the clouds open up!" Ms. Dent tossed her head and joined him in the aisle. "Finally! That's the first good idea I've heard all day!" By unanimous decision, it was decided that the tour group would hike the rest of the way up the path to the manor while Ridgely and Carlisle took the bus back down to the village for repairs, as the whole affair was their fault.

     A fierce wind snatched at hair and clothing as they stepped out into the gray afternoon. Evelyn shivered and pulled her wrap tighter around her thin shoulders. "Here." the stranger, who still had not introduced himself, held out his tattered coat to the girl. Timidly, she thanked him and followed the others up the path. They had just reached the point where they could see the crumbling towers of the old house when the storm broke. Amid curses and shouts of dismay, the men and women charged through the rusting iron gates and up the long pathway to the grinning skull of a mansion that lay in the mist-enshrouded forest before them.

Carnadine House.