Dam, I Wish I Was Your Beaver

    A little over a week ago, I was just driving to work and passing by where I used to live, when I noticed something crossing the creek a little ways past that point.  It looked like a tree had fallen and a bunch of stuff had collected around it.  However, there hadn't been that much rain recently.  Also, stuff had been collected on the downstream side of the tree, against the current.  And just this morning, I noticed that the water behind the tree was at a higher level and frozen. I'm pretty sure that this means it is a beaver dam.  Now, beavers can be found in eastern Kentucky.  In fact, I seem to remember seeing one in the creek in front of my home when I was a little kid.  Maybe an otter.  It has been way too long to remember the exact details.  (As an aside, I didn't learn that the waterway coming out of Wheelwright was named Otter Creek until my senior year of high school.) How is it that I rarely saw any animals such as this when I was a kid living there?  Besides the beaver, the only major animal sighting from when I was kid were two chipmunks scampering out in the snow on birthday when I was about ten or so.  That was all.  It wasn't until I was much older that better animal sightings came about.  A groundhog, or woodchuck if you prefer, trekked from the front yard to the creek and maybe across the road to the next hill.  A giant of a possum went from the front yard to the back yard one winter.  And of course there was the summer that a rabbit colony all but exploded around the house.  I mean, I saw at least one bunny everyday for about three months.  Sure, I sometimes had to stand out in the drizzle for a few minutes in the back yard to catch a glimpse of one, but there were bunches of them.  What's worse, or perhaps better, are the animals I've seen since my old home had to be torn down.  I regularly see heron in the creek near where the dam is.  A few times, a heron has flown beside my car just going over the bridge near there.  (I have also had heron fly along my car at other times, but that is beside the point.  I've also almost driven over a heron in the road, as well as encountered a heron almost face-to-beak one morning getting into my car.  It flew off almost immediately after I got close.) I have seen deer walking down or along the creek when it is low, which has been most of the time lately.  Just a few weeks ago, I actually saw four deer running into the brush beside the road, about the same place where the dam is. How I would have loved having deer so close to my home when I was a kid.  I only saw my first deer when I was around eleven or so.  A small herd were running across the highway while my mom was at a car dealership.  I wasn't interested in looking, so I was reading library books in the back seat of the old car, and I mostly missed the spectacle.  Why couldn't I have had so many animals when I was younger, so close to home?  Sure, I've seen plenty since then.  Heck, I may have seen a coyote running up a snowy hillside just this morning on the way to work.  It had a very bushy tail, so it probably wasn't a dog, and it was tan, not red like a fox.  So, good chance there.  Now, this dam might not be the work of beavers.  It is just a possibility.  But it my heart, beavers for sure.