SCUDDER POND

SCUDDER POND keeps her secrets well hidden. This is one such: Beaver lurks beneath the surface, and mom has been able to commune with him when she can  remain silent, unmoving, imbued with faithful patience and detachment.  A meditation on waiting.

So, it's not like an everyday thing...

We're not talking about our very own Bear the BeaverPig, either: Real Beaver - his big, brown, furry head gliding half submerged, his round, flat tail running like a silent submarine just beneath the surface, stopping beneath the cover of cattails to methodically chew them in half...
then dining on the thick stalks or covertly transporting them to buttress his winter-torn lodge, giving soft beaver pups a safe, sturdy home...

Some people like Polar Bears, Tigers, and Elephants.

We love Beavers. We especially love our own Bear the Beaver Pig!

And we love Scudder Pond when she allows mortals a glimpse into the mystical
circle of life she secretly births spring after spring: Renewal! No matter the harshness
of winters past. The eagles return carrying long, budding branches in sharp talons across the pond up into "their" cottonwood tree. Their nest always needs mending after all winter's windstorms.

We sit on mom's lap, staring half awake through the window when, suddenly, an eagle flies by with sticks and branches to recreate the nest where one eaglet was born last spring, fledged last summer, and will begin a new life of his own, coming full circle from birth to birth, undaunted by the winds of winter!

Spying on Beaver when he either does not see her or does not see her as a threat is truly one of mom's favorite adventures on the Outback. We'll miss her regale us with stories about "the other Beaver." The
Beaver who is not a guinea pig!

Thank goodness we have our own Beaver, and he is a guinea pig, knowing that wherever we move, our BeaverPig will be right there with us, shaking his cage bars furiously for food with the teeth of a real Beaver!

PANDA OUT!