The clouds are dark and low, and scudding across the sky – the wind is high, the great oaks and evergreens around the house are bending, roaring – the rain is pouring down, so thick and heavy that all outdoor looks rather blurred. Inside, the fire is keeping the house warm. The three cats are curled up asleep on pillows near the fire.
The dogs are asleep, two on my bed and one on the sofa. However, busily rearranging the room – putting my wet boots where he thinks they belong (not both in the same place) and my sweater, pulled down from the chair, safely packed against the door – is Tasiq, the beaver kit.
Work to be done
A mere storm does not deter him in any way – if there is work to be done, do it.
Over the last 30 years I have raised dozens of beavers. When the first few came to me I believed what I had been told by some biologists- beavers, raised by humans, could never go free.
However, as I gained in experience (experience which closely repeated the things which Grey Owl had learned years before) was, not only could they survive, but they wanted to go out and be wild.
As kits, they are very closely related to their family – and that family is almost a necessity. Since then, beavers have come to us in groups, and we have always been able to give them a family.
This is the first time in many, many years that I have a single kit, and am designated, by him, as family.
That does not mean that he will be here forever; when the time comes, a very natural time, that this beaver would leave the family lodge, and want his independence, he will swim away from me and become wild – and manage very well. Just now, he is managing very well.
Not a pet
He is living with me. He is not a pet, and both of us would resent the use of the term. Actually, he is the most demanding of animals.
First of all, beavers defecate in the water: That means, unless you can manage a pool in your kitchen, that at least twice a day you will have to put enough water in the bath tub so that he can swim and dive and defecate.
Then, of course, you will have to clean the tub thoroughly. His idea of what is tidy will not necessary be the same as yours. Boots, rugs, pillows, even chairs, can be rearranged at his will. When a door closes behind him and he doesn’t want it closed, he simply eats through it. A wooden door takes about 20 minutes.
During those first early years I had a very beautiful antique piano, with wonderfully sculpted legs, it belongs to a friend of mine, now. One of the legs is still lovely, the other has been extensively modified by a beaver.
A desk, the only piece of furniture I brought back with me when I returned from my brief attempt at sophistication (living in New York City) now has three of its original legs – the fourth is a properly cut branch from a Muskoka tree.
Assertive critter
Tasiq is just getting big enough to assert himself. Paula runs Second Story Books, in Rosseau – a most delightful little second hand book store. I found some murder mysteries which had been lying around the house for some time, and decided she might as well have them. So I took them in.
We were talking. Paula was looking through them. And then she started to laugh. “The beaver!”
He had eaten out the last seven pages. We will never know who done it.
Tasiq busily rearranges Audrey Tournay
