Lately, I have had the oddest thing happen; I’ve seen three beavers – real, actual, live beavers – hanging out by the side of three different roads around town in recent weeks. Bizarre. I don’t think I’d ever seen a real beaver before, outside of the zoo.

Everyone keeps asking me if maybe they were actually groundhogs, but no, I saw their tails. And one of them was about the size of a Springer Spaniel. That thing was HUGE.

I wonder if the exceptionally rainy spring we have had has them wandering about more freely?

(And as for the “Catch the Beaver Fever” headline on this post, it refers to an actual campaign slogan for a Knoxville Zoo beaver exhibit a few years ago. You would be driving around town, and look up and see a giant billboard reading, “CATCH THE BEAVER FEVER,” at which point you would nearly drive off the road laughing. That was a gem of an advertising campaign, for sure.)

My children leave a lot of wet towels on the floor, and sometimes they accidentally break stuff, but they have never attacked and mauled any houseguests.